Life Dramas and Happy Endings

"Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety... All one sees is certain outcome, at a time perhaps unknown to him as yet, but not in doubt."   - A Course in Miracles One of my earliest memories of an "aha" moment took place while I was in the middle of watching some TV drama as a young child. I don't' recall the actual show now, but the lesson has stayed with me. Eyes glued to the picture tube, immersed in the drama that was unfolding, deeply fearful for the main character that was up against some dire, seemingly hopeless situation. He looked to be a goner. No way out! The fear must have been written all over my face, when my father said," Well we know he will get out of this somehow. He's the main character; the show can't go on without him." Whew! I relaxed. My fear subsided with the assurance of some pre-determined outcome; that the beloved character make it through the ordeal.  It is easy for us to get caught up in the dramas of our own lives, anxious to the point of trepidation or even depression, when we fear for the way things will turn out for ourselves or our loved ones. Despite the admonishment offered by Jesus and a host of other enlightened teachers, we do worry, we do judge by appearances. Or if we do gain peace of mind it isn't long before a new drama unfolds and we are back to hoping and praying that this happens or that does not happen. Why? Because our contentment is all about how the story ends - we are both in the world and of the world. This is the bane of human existence, the cause of most of our suffering. We can start a new job, get a new mate, pay off our debts, or any other ways to begin again, however, like the season premier of a TV series, the old stories surface again in a new form.   Our illusory (false) self, the self that looks outside itself for its happiness, with its immense security needs, will get absorbed in the next drama unless we wake up from such mindless viewing habits.  Awakening our true self can bring us fresh and enlightened perspective to this upcoming season of life. Not to say that spiritual growth will spare us from the human challenges anymore than expecting a fall television season without new dramas on the schedule. Nor, should we expect that reruns are finally behind us. Spiritual growth is a gradual expansion of context, and context, as philosopher, Ken Wilbur insists, is everything. Framing life dramas in a larger context; in a cosmic perspective, allows us to observe the rising and falling action on the screen of our awareness without losing our identity in the appearances. Your true self, the self that predates your birth into a body, enjoys conscious union with God, no matter what is happening. The real you never forgets it's just a show, and sees life as the hero's journey, in which every drama, no matter how dangerous, resolves in a happy spiritual  outcome. In this certainty of outcome, you, the beloved one, returns home, safe and sound. This Sunday we will take up this topic with the message,"Even When You're Down, the Tao is Still Up." As we look squarely at our world appearances, with economic forecasts of doom and gloom, we can keep our hearts wide open to feel into the happy ending, the ultimate good, that Spirit has scripted for everyone of us. Our UCOD choir ensemble will bless us with some special music as well. Be there for your weekly "faith lift."

Centering our Intention, Staying the Course

"...we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence."  - Joseph Campbell  Last Thursday UCOD set up a labyrinth at the Vets Center as our sacred offering to Unity's World Day of Prayer. It had been some time since I walked a labyrinth and I was struck by its power as metaphor to illuminate my inward spiritual journey. As I stood at the opening, I contemplated my intention for the walk, asking for the revelation I was seeking in making this journey of many steps. Quite simply, I got the message to seek "my center" - that place of inner balance and equanimity that had recently eluded me. We have been going through a household move in which our outer world has been boxed up and shifted to a new and unfamiliar spaces, leaving me feeling unsettled and off center. So my objective was to find within me that feeling of home in which all was settled and undisturbed. As I began to walk slowly and mindfully, I could feel my body and mind settle into a calmer rhythm. Each mindful step brought focused and purposeful attention to the present moment. I silently uttered the words, I am moving toward my center and I am on my way to peace. I felt so blessed and grateful to return to this state of well-being from which I had felt estranged in recent weeks. Equally impressive was the simplicity of the practice that brought me such a blessed shift in consciousness. Two simple practices combined to manifest this profound change in my mind and heart: Intention and Attention. As long as I kept my intention clearly in my mind and held my attention in the present moment I continually moved ever deeper into a peaceful centering experience. Of course, I did not maintain this focused discipline throughout the walk to the labyrinth center. My human tendency to allow my mind to wander into a variety of other thoughts, visiting past and future happenings, got the better of me several times along the way. In those moments, I could feel myself contracting a bit, moving into body awareness, feeling more vulnerable and off center. Yet, despite my mind wanderings, I managed to keep my feet moving accurately within the marked path ahead of me. I realized that this is the grace of our attempts to carry out our spiritual intentions on earth. It wasn't necessary for me to perfect my attention in order to keep moving in the direction of goal - the centering experience, as long as I held my intention - even in the "back of my mind." This is revelatory to our walk through life. Our focus is not going to be perfect, our attention will be here, and then there, and back to here again. It will waver but we can always bring it back to this present moment, and become mindful of our intention again. Yet even if our attention strays we can make progress as we hold our intention for the larger context of our life journey. For me, my deepest intention in life is to awaken to the truth of who I really am - my truest spiritual identity. Every day I think about that intention at least once. It's the backdrop, the context, the grand milieu of my days and nights. So in the course of a given day, my attention ranges between keen present moment focus, to veritable somnambulism, yet intention is always there like the labyrinth path beneath my feet, guiding my steps, bringing me back to the course that leads me home. Lets know this together, because, we can get so down on ourselves when we feel our spiritual efforts are lacking in discipline and we're inclined to count our missteps. Let's keep it simple and cease condemning our progress and realize how the path is self correcting. Get clear on your intention each day, pay attention to your steps as mindfully as you can. And if you fall asleep to the moment, forgive yourself, and realize that the center of your intention is constantly beckoning and drawing you to itself. Unerringly, God is calling us home. Let that be our intention to remember. The path home is the life before us. Our next step awaits our attention.

Always in the Middle

No one is where he is by accident and chance plays no part in God's plan.                                    - A Course In Miracles  Several Sundays ago I shared a message on developing a sense of trust in life and offered the viewpoint that we are always in the "middle - never at the end." A number of you mentioned that this perspective had been profoundly helpful to your sense of hope and faith in life. Of course, there are apparent endings in life such as when employment or a relationship or any other time bound circumstance comes to an end. When we see these endings as "terminal conditions" we can fall into grief and hopelessness and that's very human and understandable. However, wisdom can reveal a different perspective that can lift us from despair when we are facing change and loss. In life, unlike a stage play, one scene leads to another, indefinitely, until we are no longer on this world stage. One situation ends, gives rise to a new situation, which will end soon enough, followed by yet another scene. Each scene yields the potential for life to become something new, rife with possibility, challenge, losses and gains, sorrows and joys...and on it goes. When we behold our life in the context of life's ongoing nature, we are always in the middle - never at the end. Knowing the story is yet unfinished, how can we judge it good or bad, right or wrong, favorable or unfavorable. The following story, that has been told and retold in many traditions, illustrates how judging life is always premature: Once upon a time there lived a poor farmer who lived alone with his one son. They were poor and lived a hard life. One day their only horse ran away. Their fellow villagers lamented saying, "What will you do now? That was your only horse. How will you farm your land? You are so unlucky." To this the poor farmer said, "We'll see." A few days later the farmer's horse came back bringing with it a wild horse. And the villagers said, "Now you have two horses to work your land. You're so lucky!" And the farmer said, "We'll see." The next day the farmer's son was taming the wild horse when he was thrown from her back and broke his leg. And the villagers said, "Now who will help you work your land? That is your only son. How unlucky." And the farmer said, "We'll see." A few days later the army came through town. They were there to draft all the able-bodied young men to fight in a distant war for their emperor. All the young men of the village, except for the poor farmer's injured boy, were taken away. The villagers watched as their children were taken away. They looked at the poor farmer and his boy and said, "You're so lucky." And the farmer said, "We'll see." Our way shower, Jesus, who was a master of life, cautioned against "judging by appearances." Knowing as he did that there is only one beneficent power and presence undergirding all of life, it is always too soon to abandon hope and never too early to expect a grace filled blessing to emerge from any situation. There is always more Life to come, more good to be revealed, more of the sacred eternal to displace our sense of loss. This is how we pray in Unity, acknowledging the apparent limitation, but then lifting our awareness to the ever present infinite presence of life and love that is endless. This is the good news story of your life, and mine that never ends. Get in the middle of that idea and hope springs mightily.

In Change We Trust

The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. A Course in Miracles (WB 77) I once saw a cartoon entitled, "Mastery" that showed a man standing in the middle of a one-way street, cars whizzing past him, while he pointed in the direction that the traffic was moving. A bystander provided the caption that read, "He even controls the flow of the traffic!" The rest of us make a stand against the flow of life, argue for what should be happening, and are run over or run through by the isness of life that we oppose.   We may know better but we resist this wisdom. We find it hard to go with the flow and trust in this world. No matter how many admonitions and parables exhorting the path of least resistance, never mind the track marks evidencing the consequences of standing against the flow, somehow we remain unconvinced that pushing back against life is unhealthy and unwise. Jesus had a lot to worry about in his time, and yet he preached, "Do not worry." I doubt Jesus had a healthy pension, or even a stocked pantry, and we know he had some serious enemies.   He had some very good reasons to worry, but he did not worry. How was he able to respond to 'worrisome' conditions with confidence, ease and grace? Answer: He had a big Trust fund. He truly knew the source of his well-being, and found true security in the invisible and very real Spirit of life within him. He was identified with an indwelling Father, who knew his needs before he asked and whose pleasure it was to fulfill them. Jesus was not in denial about the difficulties of life and we know he had his preferences (remember the 'take this cup' moment in the garden) but he could see beyond the appearances, and trusted more in the Greater Good than his personal will. He could see beyond a fallow field, to a harvest; beyond evil ways to essential innocence; beyond death to life without end. You and I have the same indwelling Father to rely upon. Jesus did not have a bigger God than we do. He had a bigger faith, a bigger trust fund. The potential for us to live in trust is equal to Jesus. We can begin in small ways to release the opposition in us, to relax and let go in small things. As we let go of the wheel and discover how Divine navigational intelligence operates in the minor redirections through life, we will begin to build trust for the major road closures and detours. This is how trust is built, incrementally over time, girded by faith. As every farmer knows, the real magic in the field is beyond his control. He can plant the seed, but the earth bestows. The very same Life force conspires for our good; and knows what makes us grow, thrive and prosper. The more we can trust it to work through our lives the more we will witness the ease and grace of life flowing through us. This is the path of mastery.

Shift Happens

If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change

If you're in a good situation, don't worry it'll change.                                           - John A. Simone, Sr., author Dealing with change in our lives can be the most daunting of challenges. Most of us find it difficult to embrace change, no matter how many times we've heard the axiom about change being life's only constant. When change knocks on the door, we loathe its intrusion. We are more likely to do battle with change; either fighting to hold on or fighting to let go. Why do we resist change so tenaciously? Change alters the reality picture and requires a new coping strategy. As one author wrote, "Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter." When life changes, we must make adjustments to navigate the new course. Most of us fear losing our way in unfamiliar terrain. With our fondness for predictability and control, we find comfort in the familiarity of the status quo, and cling to it. Yet despite our predilection to battle change, it is the nature of reality, as likely to arise as the morning sun. Indeed, shift happens, and will continue to happen and rock our world as long as we inhabit this physical plane. We can resist change, resist reality, but in the end, reality wins, every time! Putting it bluntly, resistance is futile and only increases suffering. Yet if we would find some measure of equanimity in the midst of change, we must ultimately accept the changes that surely will come, again and again in this life. As Alan Watts observed, "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." When we fully embrace, and enter the currents of change, then the headwinds of resistance subside. In the calm that comes from acceptance we make way for wisdom and understanding to arise. With a degree of acquiescence to our new reality, we may begin to understand the course correction. If we maintain this willingness to flow with change it can lead us to deeper understanding, and allow us to find inner peace despite an outer life that remains rife with uncertainty. No matter the rise and fall of the economy or any volatile worldly structure, there is a still point within you that remains constant and always accessible. This is the essence of you that is not subject to the ravages of upheavals, and remains a sacred haven even when everything around you is changing. My sense is that change is only going to accelerate going forward on the present trajectory of human/technological evolution. Realizing there are no fixed end points in this life, malleability will trump rigidity, and the truly happy of us will learn to surf the rising and falling tides of change.

Stories That Can Heal Us

I recently listened to an interview with physician and author, Dr. Naomi Rachel, who recounted how her life was shaped and inspired growing up surrounded by doctors and one mystic. It was her grandfather, an orthodox rabbi and student of The Kabbalah   who she described as a "flaming mystic." When she was only four years old her grandfather told her this creation story, which he called the Birthday of the World. Here are her words in the retelling:

In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light, and they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day.

Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It's a very important story for our times. And this task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It's the restoration of the world.

 

I was deeply touched by this story. Listening, I felt a lump rising in my throat, a tingle in my arms, telltale symptoms when a great truth penetrates my heart. I sense this is a story that can heal us all, no matter, our affliction or restriction. It speaks of our spiritual essence that Thomas Merton described as a hidden wholeness.

As minister, and student of life, I have witnessed the miraculous healing power of stories. Stories reveal the whole context, the implications and revelations of lives touched by circumstances, the telling of which reveal how we can be transformed by our challenges and difficulties, not merely laid low. Out of context, sans story, there are only the bleak facts of cancer, divorce, pink slips, and abandonments. But I've heard and been touched by stories in which such diseases of body, heart and spirit gave way to revelations of Being, sacred insights, and enlightened perspectives. I've seen people stricken by difficulty find their hidden wholeness and emerge with a deeper and truer sense of themselves and a renewed compelling  purpose for their lives. I've lived such stories myself.

How do you define healing? What would it look like to you? Is it the eradication of disease in the body, or a relationship that becomes your expectations? If you widened your lens of understanding of healing in a spiritual context what story might emerge? If you intended to find the "hidden light in all events and circumstances" how would the story change, or your measure of healing progress?

There are stories that can empower our lives, in which we make a profound difference right where we are, just as we are. The only barrier to our healing is our willingness to find our place in these stories, and adopt them as the context of our lives. We do not have to judge by appearances, and live in constant dis-ease. We can allow the grace of spiritual insight to reveal the grander story in which we discover and heal into our wholeness.

Believing Is Seeing

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.        -  Helen Keller      I recently re-read a number of quotes by Helen Keller and what struck me was the number of references she made to the importance of sight, vision, light, seeing and beholding. Remarkable advice from a woman who had no physical sight. Though deprived of the view of life that we sighted people enjoy, she developed clear perception of the invisible world that sustained her. "What I am looking for is not "out there", it is in me." I observed this phenomenon in my own mother who lost most of her sight to macular degeneration in her later years. As her view of her outer world dimmed she became more aware of the reality of God's presence within her. I found this remarkable and inspiring. Most of us would assume that it is the great miracles of preference, like sight being restored to the blind that would quicken a person's faith. My mother's faith was not diminished but substantially increased through a great loss. Perhaps it is the vision of one world that costs us the vision of another. Without eyesight, there is still insight, perhaps even more keenly. It is human nature to want to see life working out according to our preferences. We think we know what would be best for us, make us happy, or serve our life purpose. Yet many of us got what we wanted, and happiness remained elusive. Or we avoided some awful fate, and never dealt with our deepest fear. When we ask the question, what is best for us, we must be willing to abandon personal will to make room for soul wisdom.  Then we find a path to our growing edge and enlarge our capacity to believe in the invisible self that surpasses human understanding. This is the place where we can build our faith in the hidden reality of our Being. For many of us a process of subtraction becomes a great boon to our spiritual understanding. As visible forms of life change before our eyes, we are spun around and dropped into the lap of a Presence within. While eyes search in vain for the happy outcomes in the night, insight reveals the unseen comforter; the eternal blessing. To some people, the fruits of their faith are measured in getting what they pray for. This is visualization; using creative power to manifest according to our will. This is a useful tool, but builds a fragile faith, entirely dependent upon circumstances for its strength. A deeper faith comes by uncovering a persistent state of well being, that remains unperturbed through whatever arises.  If my faith in God is predicated on how my life unfolds in a purely outer sense, I am assured of a wobbly faith, built on sand. Yet if I resist the temptation to "judge by appearances" and seek the grace within my own consciousness, I will be sustained by knowing that I am one with the eternal presence power and love of Spirit--- whatever may come.  This is why we pray and meditate, so that we can improve our inner vision and come to know that the presence of Spirit is inseparable from us. Then when outrageous winds of change come and change the landscape of our visible world, we will look within to find the good, true and the beautiful which steadfastly remain in us, for us, and as us.