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.

Relying on the Cloud of Knowing

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven..". - Mathew 6:19
In today's world of data and technology many of us store our treasures on computer hard drives where viruses and mechanical breakdowns can cost us dearly. In the last several weeks, not one, but all three of us in the house, have been touched by the untimely shock and agonizing consequences of computer breakdowns and viruses.  When these techno disasters occur we are immediately confronted with the pain of separation from our precious files, contacts, calendars, and emails. With one momentous glitch we are cut off from our now customary means of communicating, scheduling, creating, learning and more.  In an instant the technology that we took for granted becomes glaringly precious, and we see how reliant we have become on that which wears out, breaks down and predictably fails.  

After the last episode involving the UCOD office PC when several of us who access the data were "locked out" by hardware failure, I decided to explore a better way.  I discovered "cloud computing." Simply put, cloud computing is an evolved technology that permits storage of data and programs on the web that is accessible to anybody with internet access and permission. The data is more secure, the hardware less likely to fail, and ultimately should offer a much more reliable way to work with and safe keep our precious data. Is it perfect? No. But it's a move away from isolation, vulnerability and limitation to a more robust and reliable environment.

Whether or not we have computer breakdowns, each of us faces from time to time, the loss of something precious to us. In this world of materiality and sense consciousness it is so very natural to invest value in things that can be lost or broken. If we have invested our well-being or peace of mind in ephemeral things, we will surely be ripped off by failures that are bound to happen in this time-bound dimension. 

There is a better way. It's an evolved spiritual idea, that calls us to recognize a greater dimension of life and Being that is not subject to the aforementioned inclination toward failure and disappointment.  Jesus called it the Kingdom of Heaven.  He likened it to a precious pearl of great value; an imminent reality, closer even than our breath.  It is a cloud of knowing - a milieu of loving awareness capable of satisfying our deepest yearnings for a fulfilled life. It is accessible to each of us, according to our willingness to know its Presence in us....as us. 

This is why we pray, or contemplate, or meditate. So that when stuff breaks or wears out, as it surely will, these events might serve to awaken us to a deeper peace and wholeness than earthly imposters offer us. Being driven to our knees by life is not such a bad idea. Often times when I'm at my most exasperated self, I finally let go, and surrender my willful resistance to life. In those precipitous moments I am a candidate for greater insight, and within reach of the compassionate cloud of knowing. 

You and I can take refuge in this sacred place of awareness. Even when life is breaking down all around us, we can nonetheless be safe and comforted here. And by resting in this place of knowing, we can refresh our perceptions, and find innovative and creative ways to deal with life that can ease and bless our days on earth.

 

In, Through, Up & Out

Had a bad day, a sad day, a down day lately?   It happens, as the expression goes, to the best of us. Despite our spiritual foundation, our commitment to spiritual practice, self-awareness, familiarity with the terrain of our personal mind field, we can be tripped up, and fall from a state grace, joy, or peace.  When this happens, our response can make all the difference as to how we climb back to our natural God given state of joy and peace.    For many of us, our first response to such negative emotions is denial and/or guilt.  Usually carried by the thought, I am spiritual; I can't be, or I shouldn't be feeling sad or depressed!  That's simply not true.  We all have egos; we are in this world to work out our feelings of separation from God.  Whatever feelings arise, they are feedback to what we believe is true in any given moment.  For that reason, we must acknowledge them. To deny or repress those feelings would ensure that we remain in darkness, painfully ignorant of what is going on in us. Until we can recognize that these feelings exist in us, we can't begin the spiritual correction process.  Of course, our egos would rather deny these feelings or blame them on circumstances or other people. However, when we deny or project, we ensure that the problem remains beyond our reach, and therefore unsolvable.   It is the good news-bad news of authentic spiritual understanding.  On the surface, we confront what appears as the bad news; that the problem lies within us.  The good news of course is that we have control over our inner experience, which means there is a way out of our suffering.  By admitting, I am feeling sad, I firmly establish this situation as my personal experience, with nobody or nothing to blame. When I take responsibility for my experience, I have correctly located the problem, where I can deal with it and find my way out.    So how do we get free when we're mired in negative emotions? The answer is a reversal of the problem. A Course In Miracles says, "A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct."  My ego does not want to hear this but it just happens to be the truth:  My sadness (fear, anger, etc.) is a result of a decision that I made.  That decision was to see another person or myself or a situation without love.  Some form of judgment on my part is blocking my heart and preventing God's love from flowing through me.  This is spiritual angina, and it hurts like hell. My only way out is to see through eyes of Truth, which corrects my misperception, and cast healing light on everything I see.  If I listen to Spirit's voice, I am shown the truth in any situation, and am blessed by the reversal that turns my darkness into light.   Here is the systematic process offered by ACIM:   I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace. I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise. I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace. I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him. I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.

Give Me The Growth... Keep the Change!

The well worn phrase," the only thing constant in life is change" needs an update in my opinion. The way I see it, and I'm finding agreement among many observers of life,  the rate of change has increased.  From the speed of technological advancement, to the immediacy of our communication capabilities we live in a maelstrom of change.  It is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. Collectively we have created this pace and set in motion the mechanics and means for its continuance.  We may not like it but here we are in its current. 

So what can we do to navigate through the rushing waters of change so that we are not engulfed by it, but rather carried to a desirable downstream destination? The answer is of course the reverse of the problem. We need to change. Sorry to be the bearer of the obvious but it's the only wise response. Resistance doesn't work. Trying to slow down the river is dam hard, and ultimately futile.  Arguing against change provides only egoic satisfaction (this shouldn't be happening) and equally pointless. 

In this quickening age it has become increasingly necessary to recalibrate our responses and adaptations more frequently.  Many of us feel that an evolutionary impulse is behind the wholesale disruptions of long standing beliefs, structures and institutions that now are under assault by the forces of change.  In other words, we are being forced to confront the disruption and disappearance of norms in our life, out of a universal intention to break us free from our identification with forms. In spiritual terms this would be the Divine impulse having its way with us, morphing our awareness into a truer version of ourselves.  Jesus called this building your faith upon a rock, where the winds of change and shifting sands of impermanence could not disturb your essential self.

Each day we hear about weather disasters where powerful forces are tearing at the surface of the earth and everything upon it.  Upsetting change has always been with us.  Fortunately, our deepest nature remains undisturbed and undiminished through it all. It is always with us as well. This is the pearl that remains hidden within us while the weather is fair and pleasant.  However, when the storms strike in our lives, and the structures that have defined us, such as jobs, finances, and health, are forcefully upended by winds of change, our essential, pure selves often get laid bare. On those days, we can see with the eyes of spiritual masters, seeing what passes away and what remains. Stripped of externals, we stand on the bedrock of our true nature, and behold the grace of change for having revealed who we really are.  Seen in this way, change becomes transformation, an ally with our deepest impulse to know ourselves as God knows us.