FROM THE INSIDE...

You are being called from the inside.  

If you close your eyes and relax the mind, and let go of what you think you know about yourself, you may begin to experience something that has been with you always and will be with you until the end of your days.  It has been calling to you to know it.  

It is a quiet patient calling and it is timeless and endless.  

To answer this call, one only need to begin to quiet themselves.  This is done by just Stopping.  In any moment, like this one right now, just Stop.  Simply Stop.  In this Stopping you will see something that is overlooked in all the “doing” of the world.  It is the Peace that everyone is searching for but cannot find because they seek it “out there” in the world.  All the while it has been and is always Right Here, waiting for you to Stop.  

It can be accepted in any moment you find yourself in…you just simply Stop.  Everything.  In one instant you are Gifted everything that one searches for … for completion in Life.  To realize that one is already complete.  No one can give it to you.  You must be willing to begin to Stop, when things are crazy and spinning around you, just Stop.  Everything.  

Just for a moment Stop and these “Stoppings/Pauses” will become more and more frequent and then you will begin to be the Center of the storm.  Things will come to you because you are focused on Peace,  on what doesn’t Move, in a world of movement.  Because what you are focused on is not in this world, it is what the world is in.

Namaste.

MEDITATION ...

(Have a Sacred Space)

This morning during Meditation, what came up was to speak about "Meditation" as it has been one of the greatest gifts in quieting the "monkey mind" that goes on throughout ones day.  Prior to Meditation, there was nothing but the "monkey mind", one thought chasing another thought, linking to another thought, following another thought.

It seemed that Meditation appeared in stages, first there was a driving Meditation with a cassette tape my mother gave me called "The Infinite Self" by Stewart Wilde, which shared the story of his life, the undertaking of quieting the mind, his Teachers and his discipline, then at the end of the 12th tape there is a recording of the Theta-Metronome.  I would put this in the car on my drive to school and would listen to him share things that were both hard to believe but absolutely believable and so the first taste of Meditation was in the car.  On his recommendation to do something pointless, which was to get up every morning and take a rock (the same rock) and move it from one side of the yard to the other.  I had two young children at the time, and it was tough at first getting up so early (when I could be sleeping in) but I did...I got up and I went to the backyard each day (feeling quite dumb about it actually, but believing in him) would move the rock from one side of the yard (slowly) to the other.  I don't recall how long I did this, however it made an impact.  There was something about doing something, with no benefit, other than the doing, that shifted something in this mind.

The second taste of Meditation was through Unity Church.  My mother was a member and although there was not ever much of a draw to be at church there was something different about this one.  I was 22 at the time and a bit of a rebel and so some Sundays I would go completely hung over, and I knew that people there knew...but they didn't judge me and I could feel that they weren't and this created a willingness to be there...however I was there and so I continued to show up.  Each Sunday  Rev. Al (cannot remember his last name right now) would start with a 5 minute silent Meditation.  In the beginning it was the longest 5 minutes of my life.  Either the thoughts were racing and it was like hell or the time would go so slow like when you would look at the clock on the wall during the last minutes of school.  But eventually it started to become something I looked forward to when going there.  It became the only 5 minutes of Peace I would have each week, though I didn't know that at the time.

The third and lasting introduction into Meditation came through my Teacher.  I had had an unexplainably intense experience, actually beyond all experience during a Meditation that scared and depressed me so much that I had become afraid of Meditation, I could not understand what had been Revealed and went on years of searching for answers, until my Teacher appeared.  It didn't happen overnight, I was very resistant to Meditation for years after our Meeting.  He opened a room every morning through Yahoo Messenger and many would sit with him.  I was not a regular for a long time.  But He and Meditation eventually won and I began getting up every morning sometime between 4:30 and 5am and I would log in and sit with myTeacher and the others who had also come to sit together.  This went on for many, many years.  I will not lie and say it was an easy undertaking.  It is a discipline that at first, at least for this one, was quite challenging.  There would be physical pains in the back and legs, there would be thoughts of fear or of having more important things to do.  But over time and consistency and through the commitment Meditation and being with myTeacher each day, that it continued on.

The commitment in the beginning was to a 1/2 hour every day from 5 to 5:30am.  To not move.  To let the thoughts be there without trying to fix or change them.  To sit through the beautiful thoughts, the ugly thoughts, the good one, the bad ones, the ones that say do this and do that and not move.  I will not tell you that Meditation will give you anything, but it will take things away, things you didn't know you had or were holding onto.  This can be good news or bad news depending on what you want to keep.  For this one, it has been one of the Greatest Gifts life has provided and life is becoming a more conscious Living Meditation every moment that I am in.  I still set aside time for Meditation 3 times a day.  It is always a different experience.  I have not once had a Meditation that was like any other prior.  Then after that 1/2 hour there would be a Speaking, generally by myTeacher and all would remain silent, with their mics off, and then if there was a question they would type it in.  Here is an edited clip of one of those Speakings called "Screen of Self."

So this came up for me today to share, because it has shifted things so dramatically (through no drama) in this life, that I would like to offer it to anyone and everyone that is willing to begin to lay the mind aside, to Realize what the mind is IN. 

If you are willing, find a quiet place, make it your sacred place and set aside a certain amount of time each day and commit to being there, like the mailman, rain or shine, it is your priority.  You may wish to have a picture of your Teacher or of something that calms you, light a candle in front of it before you begin, have a slight stretch and if you like incense, slowly smell it before lighting it and then sit back and let what comes, come and don't move ... it is all to clear you of who you think you are (thoughts), to Reveal to you ... who you Are (before thought).

I am at Meditation every morning at 5 to 5:30am, feel free to join me, you do not have to be in one's physical presence to be there.  If you would like to let me know that you are there, I would love to hear from you.

GOD IS FOR GIVING (Forgiving)

You hear a lot about forgiving.  How we should forgive one another, forgive ourselves, search for forgiveness.  There is so much about forgiving that it is often overlooked that forgiving isn’t really forgiving.  True Forgiving/Forgiveness … is not even having anything or anyone to forgive.  Hence the title of the post…God (whatever it is that you think of when you hear that word) is for Giving…maybe that is where the word “forgiving” came from … just Give…if someone thinks they need your forgiveness then just give it…just Give without thinking about it…come from a Giving nature, allow God to Give through you.  You don’t know what you or anyone else needs, but you get to see what is needed when you step out of the way and see.  You don’t even know what Giving is.  Sometimes Giving looks like taking and sometimes taking looks like Giving.  But in spite of the appearances…God is for Giving…it is a Constant of That.  There Only Giving.

One could use the life of Dr. King as an example, his life was in Service to Giving.  Giving a new way of seeing, giving a way of making changes without resorting to violence, giving a voice to those that were not being Heard at the time and for leading a large group of people all in the same direction of giving a Dream of Unity Life and in his Death, he continues to Give by reminding us of His Dream, that we have the ability to get along without violence, without judgments, with the ability to not always understand what we are seeing but the patience to wait and see what comes. 

He said that all are my Brothers (don’t get hung up on gender…Brother has no gender) if one is willing to go to the Core…they will find where “we/Brothers” are all the Same, Genderless, Race-less, Color-less, Religion-less, Body-less, Personality-less.  When you get to that Core any questions of how or why … that you might be having now, will be Answered.  God is For Giving and will Give yourSelf to you…if you are willing and ultimately, even if you are not.  :o)

IT IS NEVER “HOW” OR “WHY” BUT ONLY “WHO?”

This is one of the first deep reinforcements that showed up after the question “Who am I?”  Appeared.  In this world there is an answer for what one seeks, because the answer is always before the question.  You can see this by knowing that everything that you would ever want to know about the world the universe anything that can be experienced by the senses, the answer is available to every question because it all already is … so the answer must be there.  But with questions of a spiritual nature, one cannot go to the senses for the answers because the senses are in the Answer.  With the world/universe the answers are out there to be found.  With Spirituality the Answer is not in the world/universe, it is reflected there, but it is before there, there is in It.

So the statement that was gifted me by myTeacher is “It is never how or why, it is always and only, who?”.  When the “how” or “why” questions about spirituality would come up…the answer would appear “who is asking?”  And that would point one back to the question “who am I?”  And there would be a beginning again.  

Truth is not going to let the personality try and win.  The personality wants to be God.  But this is the catch 22, it is the personality that obstructs the view of God (not really, but it is a good pointer) but the personality is IN GOD and so the personality cannot be separate from GOD, but take the time to begin to see through the personality before you go claiming to Be GOD because once you See you are GOD...who would you claim it too :o).  (Ed. Note, don’t get too hooked on the word God…there are very few ways to point to that which has no Name, No-Thing to describe it, it is not knowable by words unless you are Aware of It … and IT is not and it).  

So it is the personality that is being asked to question itself.  And the great reinforcement that it actually isn’t (doesn’t exist) can begin to be Seen when anytime a “how” or “why” question appears, begin to ask “who.”  Just replace all “how” and “why” questions for awhile with “who?”  And begin to see what comes.  It takes only a little bit of willingness to begin to See...it's been said only the size of a mustard seed.

Gentle smiles are reminders from Home.

Namaste. 

Only Love Remains

If one takes an honest look at the past, 

everything you currently see will disappear.

Life has a way of recycling itself so that one day

even humans will be extinct 

and something else will be in its place.

All the books and all the teachings, learning, experiences 

are all written on water.

What you are reading right now 

will one day be washed away 

along with everything else.

But what Remains...

has always been

Always IS.

It is what has no opposite, 

one can call it Love, 

but it matters not what you call it 

because even words will eventually be washed away.

It is Here now and you don't need anything to Know it.

If you recognize that everything you have relied upon to find it 

are all things that can and will be taken away

Then ... when everything one relies upon is gone.

What Remains.

A TOUGH EXTERIOR...

(Trust that the  hands that hold you Love you.)

There are many examples one can use to point to a tough exterior.  It comes up to use the example of turtles because they would not make it in this world without one (a tough exterior that is). 

When we are first born we are like a turtle, we are flimsy and we need protection from the elements and this is usually where a parents or caretakers come in and play this role, without them we would probably not survive.

As we grow older and have many life experiences, we can grow shells around us like the Turtle, it just isn’t as obviously seen.  We do this to protect ourselves from being hurt, but unlike the turtle it is not just physical protection we wear our shells for it is psychological protection also (which sometimes is the more challenging of the two to take off…because psychological isn’t actually real and so you have to somehow show someone that what they believed in never was and that can be more challenging that healing a broken bone, because you can see that a broken bone has healed but how do you heal a thought (psychological wound)?

The thing that gets distorted is that one begins to rely on the shell and not one what the shell appeared to protect.  There is a bit of trouble attempting to word this.  If you look at your body…as the Turtle shell… then you can look at the Heart as the body of the turtle.  I don’t know how clear this will sound but the body is the shell that covers one’s Heart/Light.  The Heart requires the protection of the body to “be” in this world just like the turtle’s body requires the shell for it to be in this world.

But the shell is not the turtle and the body is not the Heart…they are extensions of each.  So the body of a turtle is tender and the Heart is tender too, however a turtle is not weak, nor is the Heart and at some point one is wise to begin to look at what the body is protecting. 

This is quite a challenge to describe, however, the Heart cannot be hurt, ultimately because it is not in this world, the world is in It.  But how does one begin to help one see this.  It’s like saying to a turtle…”hey take off your coat and stay awhile.”  (The coat being it’s shell.)  It would probably be a bit freaked and wonder why you would want to take it’s protection away, but you are just seeing that the protection is like a heavy armor that the turtle is carrying around and could use a rest, there is nothing for it to protect itself from around you, maybe out in the world, but around you, it is safe. 

But how do you help the turtle to see this?  To give the turtle a rest.  Possible you could point around to the turtle and show it that there is nothing around it that would hurt it, that all the things that it thinks it has had to protect itself from are not currently here.  Could you have the turtle look around it’s surroundings and see that?  How would you put the turtle at ease when it has been hurt and attacked before?

Time and patience are what help turtles and humans to see that it is okay to take the shell off and to sit back and relax for a bit without all that heavy weight holding it down.  It might kick it’s feet up and you might rub on them and share things that you have been afraid to say because someone laughed at you or made you feel badly about things that your Heart Knows.

Once you have begun to every once in awhile, take your shell/shoes off, when you have found the company of those that have also had shells but have found that they can take them off and just play and be who they are without protection.  Then when you go back into the world, you still have your shell/body/armor to wear but it might not be so thick and it might not be so heavy.

Once this has happened for you, you begin to be it for others.  The other day I was at the college and I don’t usually like to be in a crowd of a lot of people…but that is how it was.  Sometimes I will see myself as a tree and inside the tree is a core of Light that runs up and down through and out of me.  If there is an un-comfortableness growing then, like yesterday, sometimes the focus will go to that Light … it is like a pole that can be held onto when things get uncomfortable. 

As this was happening a person came up to me and said he was having anxiety, which was funny because the same was in me but I shared with him where the attention was and although I am not sure that he understood what I was saying…he eased up and started sharing with my why he was going to school and there was a feeling inside of holding that Space for us both to be in…like I was the one holding onto the Light Pole within and both of us were experiencing it.  These things are not easy to explain, and I cannot speak for the other person that he experienced anything that I am sharing, however, he did seem to relax and begin to openly share about his life…it seems both our guards went down and neither of us seemed to be aware of the crowd that was still there (which was about 80 people).

So this is sort of like the shell coming off…maybe only momentarily, but when it comes off there is a relaxing and a lightening of the load and the anxiety goes down.  Now maybe if I had not been focused on the Light before he came over to me…it might have been a completely different experience but it went the way it did and now I get to share that.  We all have that because we are all in IT.  But we are not all aware of it and sometimes think that it can be found in things outside of us.  But if you find someone, like I have that is a Light House and shines a Light on you until you begin to see that you are also a Light House...

Then you are a very lucky Turtle :o)