Anti Quiet Culture

Anti Quiet Culture

 

We live in a culture prejudiced against stillness, opposed to motionlessness. We live in an anti-quiet culture. We worship movement, activity, noise. Activity and noise grab our attention and make us feel alive. We do not usually equate stillness with progress and growth. And do not generally think there is much to be gained by being still.  There does not seem to be much to learn from quietness or from waiting without stimuli- for our eyes, ears, mouths- what is there?  

When was the last time you heard someone say, I’m really proud of my son. Yesterday, he sat in his room all day, alone, and deeply contemplated life? 

Most parents would be worried. When is he going to get a job? We worship activity. Do something! Move! Say something! Are we afraid that if we remain still for more than a moment that we somehow court the Grim Reaper? We think, we’ve got a lot to do before we die, and maybe if we look busy enough alive enough-death will leave us alone. 

Don’t get me wrong  I’m one of the most action oriented people you will meet. But, before meditation my actions and goals were unconscious and a result of my generally futile attempts to deal with my suffering, even though I did not realize what I was doing. Now my actions and goals are conscious and the result of a deep stillness inside me that allows me to see more clearly what needs doing. To remain unattached to the outcome, and do whatever needs doing in a way I hope benefits those around me. To me… THIS is alive. 

Gandhi once said of Western Culture, Here are people with everything except stillness. Stillness is not death. Stillness allows room for feeling, sensing, experiencing, knowing and awareness. Stillness creates space a sacred space in that we connect with the very life that we are. Stillness allows the development of the Witness, which as we have seen, is the doorway to happiness and inner peace.  

This stillness is not a sensory experience in the way of most of us know it. It is deeper. It’s an awareness of centeredness.  

When meditating I feel as though I’m in touch with my own humanity in the most metaphysical and profound sense. And I know what peace feels like. 

Meditation is oil upon the upon the rushing waters of  our high velocity lifestyles. 

As T.S. Elliot wrote.  I said to my soul, be still and wait… and the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.   

What we most desire is already within us. Our job is to be still and wait.

 

Devotion: All is Love

Dear Friends,

Simply put, Devotion at least in the spiritual sense, is all about Love. To practice devotion is to basically explore love. Its and invitation to join the Nobelist of aspirations. Love has inspired poets and philosophers as long as human beings have enjoyed a good story. Without love we would have no Romeo and Juliet, no Triston and Isolade no Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy and for that matter no song of songs, no Jacob and Rachel, no Ruth and Boaz,  Weather the topic is love won or lost, love thwarted or misunderstood, cosmic romance or passionate tragedy there nothing so fundamentally human as a good story about love.

And Devotion is just that. It is the greatest of love stories.

We are all miracles, living clay with carefully calibrated capacity to give and receive love. And no matter how that may play out on human level. (For human love can take many forms) this thing called devotion dares to proclaim that you and I and everyone else that has been given a beating heart have been invited to immerse ourselves in and immediate, experimental, life transforming relationship with the very source of love. In its purest most original form. The very foundation of Love, those on this path, call GOD. Made real and visible and accessible to everyone.

Devotion is grounded in this love. The teachings of the great mystics speculate on this love. Where it came from why we believe it is accessible to all. Wisdom about love is recorded in the autobiographies and memories of yogis,contemplatives, visionaries who great and ordinary, ancient and post modern, young, old, male and female,educated and not educated all tell about this love.  How this love surprised them, pursed them,filled with breathtaking visions and heart rendering suffering demanded almost superhuman sacrifices and yet overflowed with unspeakable joys.

Looking for love is a simple fact of being human. Its the stuff of fairy tales, dates, movies, romance novels. You may understand how love sustained Jacob day after day while he had to wait fourteen long years for Rachael’s hand in marriage. We want every love story to have and happy ending and we sigh with disappointment  as in Romeo and Juliet, it doesn’t work out.

This path of Devotion teaches us that by nature we are to love and be loved by GOD. This can lead to endless bliss and unending Joy that can begin here and now and will embrace all eternity. But this outcome is by no means automatic. GOD is a rather polite and shy lover. And never forces himself on you. If you want his love you need to declare to him, to yourself and indeed to the world, just what it is you seek.

Of course this declaration of love may take many forms. Many may seek GOD by following the plans that are laid out before them. By there church, they may read the bible, they worship every Sunday, they tithe, they volunteer in programs to care for the needy or otherwise make the world a better place. They are all worthy pursuits and  true devotion is not opposed to any of them. But, to those dedicated to the pursuit of GOD in devotion these ordinary observances represents only the beginning of the search.

This quest for divine love is a daily concern. But, GOD being the shy polite GOD that he is, doesn’t merely just pop up in your life just because you say a lot of prayers or meditate for a half hour a day. GOD is GOD. Not a formula. Not the sum and equation that will always behave predictably. So the experience of seeking GOD is always open ended and mysterious.

What will happen if you devote your life to the pursuit of this love? What is your story? , This Sunday Under the Sun.

True Prayer comes from GOD and Goes back to GOD

Dear Friends,

Thank you for joining me in these sessions on Sunday morning. Many of you have expressed your enjoyment in this Journey into higher consciousness. Some of these concepts may not resonate with you initially. But let these seeds grow with your daily meditations and they will become clear for you. Stay with me in these sometimes complex and confusing concepts. Let go of what you think  you know. And as we learned last week, this is the beginning of Wisdom.

Deep quiet meditation is the highest form of prayer. So you may ask.

Do prayers, visualizations, affirmations or other spiritual practices really work, or if they only

work sometimes, why?

This question is asked repeatedly by many–those who ask for prayer and those who pray or use some other spiritual practice for themselves or others.  With the progression in spiritual awakening, the answers change.

As an example, in the old-time, basic fundamentalist religion, prayer for most is a pleading, begging, or hoping for some desired result.  As a person moves in spiritual awareness to a higher plane of consciousness or understanding, such as that of New Thought or basic metaphysics, the pleading and begging cease, and prayer becomes an affirming that, through God’s Power, the desired effect is already so.

The question then becomes, which is most effective: old-fashioned prayer or newer New Thought prayer?  If truth be told, both can be effective–and, at the least, give that illusion of effectiveness to one’s personal perception.  Or, on the other hand, whether one uses traditional, New Thought, or any other spiritual practice, the results can prove to be ineffective.

Why is this?  Does God favor one person or religion over another?  The answer found in all results is that God has no favorites.

Why, then?

For a moment, become reflective and ask yourself this question:  What if every prayer were answered favorably and every other form of spiritual practice brought about the requested result?

Keep also in mind that the initiation of most spiritual practices is for the betterment of one’s own condition in some way, without thought of others.  During such times, the false personal sense of ego identity, with limited awareness, attempts to influence God as to what to do.  If everyone received exactly what was prayed for, visualized for, or affirmed for, would humankind then live in a perfect world?

Whether individuals engage in any spiritual practices for the good of one person or even the entirety of creation, they still do not even begin to have the awareness necessary concerning the final result.  Instead of a perfect world, there would be chaos! The Reality is that humankind collectively, as it exists in consciousness on this physical plane of existence, does not possess sufficient awareness to truly know what to ask for or desire. Only Universal Presence, or God, knows what is best for any one person–or the Totality of Universal Existence.

The answer?

From God’s vantage point within the innermost consciousness of every soul, Universal Presence Knows when to respond and when not to, which is, in and of itself, a response.  At all times, God or Universal Presence knows what is best for the individual soul’s Eternal existence and for all souls manifesting collectively as humanity on the physical earth plane of existence.

Universal Consciousness, Presence, or God, as Creator and Sustainer, recognizes that all that is taking place everywhere must be in harmony and balance on a Universal Scale. As Einstein said, you cannot add or subtract one pound force from the universe.  Without harmony and balance, as previously stated, chaos would ensue throughout the physical and other-dimensional universe. To grant the requested results to everyone who used some manner of spiritual practice to bring about some desired result, without awareness of how such a result would set up aUniversal chain reaction, would be pure folly.

When any spiritual practice is in attunement and alignment with Universal Will, results will seem to take place.  The lack of results will seem to be the outcome when the spiritual practice is not in attunement and alignment with Universal Presence or God’s Will.  Keep in mind that this is true whenever the false personal sense of ego identity is engaged in any spiritual practice and that Universal Presence or God is Totally in Control–at all times.

There comes a time in the life of every soul that an emptying out of personal ego takes place, with the subsequent replacement by Universal God Presence Consciousness. The intention is to bring the energy field of the soul’s human manifestation into greater harmony, balance, or alignment with manifesting Universal Energy or Universal God Consciousness/Spirit. In this way, it is Universal Consciousness or God entering into the awakening person’s surface frontal consciousness that creates the prayer, visualization, affirmation, or other spiritual practice–and the personal ego is less and less involved. 

          It is then God who creates the prayer that is prayed.

• It is then God who visualizes the visualization.
• It is then God who affirms the affirmations.
• It is then God who is directing any other spiritual practice.

As this emptying out ( of the garbage can) is always a work in progress while the soul is in human form, this alteration is not taking place 100% of the so-called time.  Occasionally, because of the illusions of sense perceptions, the false personal ego might appear in control.  But as Universal Awareness, Christ Mindedness, or its Equivalent gains more control, those momentary lapses become fewer. (attunement)

Summing up:

Suffering, whether in oneself or in others, cries out for relief, and it is a human reflex to pray, visualize, affirm, or engage in spiritual practice.  Eventually the suffering will subside, whether by healing or seeming death (soul transition).  In the interim, chaos is avoided and Universal Existence is saved; the soul, as a result, enjoys the beauty of harmony and balance within itself and all that surrounds it.

So, let us Always keep in awareness that < True prayer comes from GOD and goes back to GOD .Universal Presence is Eternally in Control for the Ultimate Good of every soul.  And so, what will be, will be–because it already is this Sunday Under The Sun.