In Yoke

The Holy Spirit is for ALL humanity!

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:30:00 +0000

/// from Richard Rohr--our faith is universal--and wholly diverse, and inclusive

The Spirit Is for All

Author Lisa Sharon Harper describes the diversity of the early church:

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rushed in and caused all those present to speak in languages that were not their own. Each person understood the others…. God established the confusion between languages at the Tower of Babel (see Genesis 11). At Pentecost, God brought the languages together, but not in the way we would imagine. God did not unite the world under one imperial language. Rather, the power of God made it possible to have unity in the midst of diversity. God made it possible for people to speak languages that were not their own and to understand one another.  

And in the same way Jesus had broken gender and class barriers, this multiethnic, multilingual group turned its back on misogyny and economic favoritism. Peter [quoting Joel 3:1–2] explained to the crowd why women and slaves were prophesying along with free men:  

In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy (Acts 2:17–18)….  

In other words, all the cultural, economic, and gender barriers between them were broken down.  

Theologian Luke Powery names how the Holy Spirit’s presence is given for all, not just some:

Pentecost shows that the Spirit loves us so much that she wants to get inside of us, dwell in us, and commune with us in a bond of love. This divine outpouring is love for each person. The Spirit honors the bodies of all people—young, old, male, female, all human beings throughout the world.… The Spirit is an equalizer and holy resister to racism and racial hierarchical systems.

That the Spirit fills all and rests on all, not just some bodies … provides an opportunity for those deemed nonhuman to reclaim their humanity in God. Pentecost shows us that the spiritual is linked to the material, and thus that all human bodies matter to the life of faith. The glory of God is revealed through all human flesh and is the “sign of special favor from the spirit.” At Pentecost, each body and ethnicity is affirmed as sacred and of worth, a human being loved by God.…

No human voice or body is denied the presence and fire of God. Humans, regardless of ethnicity or race, speak a multiplicity of languages to reveal the diversity of God from the beginning, which is the vision of the end….

Pentecost ... creates a new world. It is a new creation ignited by the Spirit. The Spirit may be “unsought” or “unwanted” but is “intent on making all things new.” This includes new flesh, a new body for the people of God.

Resilience - to contemplate upon

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 12:08:00 +0000

Richard Rohr--laid out a gem...maybe thematic for 2024-- 1-21-24-CSS

Faith and Resilience

Father Richard defines resilience in the context of the Christian faith:

Resilience is really a secular word for what religion was trying to say with the word faith. Even Jesus emphasized faith more than love. Without a certain ability to let go, to trust, to allow, we won’t get to any new place. If we stay with order too long and we’re not resilient enough to allow a certain degree of disorder, we don’t get smarter, we just get rigid.

Unfortunately, this is what characterizes so many religious people. They’re not resilient at all. Then there’s another set of people who have settled down in disorder—believing there’s no pattern, there’s nothing always true. It’s a deep cynicism about reality, and that’s equally problematic. I think such faith in both good order and acceptable disorder—creating a new kind of creative reorder—is actually somewhat rare. [1]

To have faith, to grow toward love, union, salvation, or enlightenment, we must be moved from order to disorder and then ultimately to reorder.

Eventually our ideally ordered universe—our “personal salvation” project [2], as Thomas Merton called it—must and will disappoint us, if we are honest. Our spouse dies, we were rejected on the playground as a child, we find out we’re needy, we fail an exam for a coveted certification, or we finally realize that many people are excluded from our own well-deserved “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is the disorder stage, or what Christians call from the Adam and Eve story the “fall.” It is necessary in some form if any real growth is to occur; but some of us find this stage so uncomfortable we try to flee back to our first created order—even if it is killing us and the very things we love.

There is no nonstop flight to reorder. Various systems call it “enlightenment,” “exodus,” “nirvana,” “heaven,” “springtime,” or even “resurrection.” Reorder is life on the other side of death, the victory on the other side of failure, the joy on the other side of the pains of childbirth. It is an insistence on going through—not under, over, or around. To arrive there, we must endure, learn from, and include disorder, transcending the first naïve order—but also still including it!

Happiness is the spiritual outcome and result of resilience, full growth, and maturity. This is why I am calling it “reorder.” Ultimately, we are taken to happiness—we cannot find our way there by willpower or cleverness. Yet we all try! We seem insistent on not recognizing the universal pattern of growth and change. Trees grow strong by reason of winds and storms. Boats are not meant to stay in permanent dry dock or harbor. Baby animals must be educated by their mothers in the hard ways of survival, or they almost always die young. It seems that each of us has to learn on our own what is well hidden but also in plain sight. [3]

The kahuna

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 13:51:00 +0000

The word kahuna, is a an indigenous Hawaiian, or Polynesian description of a being who evolves towards mastery, involving self-mastery.

No shaman or kahuna ever calls themselves a shaman or a kahuna.

It just isn't done.

It has to do with humility, and as we all know, the folks on the other side of the mirror who provide us with these special abilities and the energy with which to help others, they don't regard it highly when you go around calling yourself something.

Humility is a key aspect of such a native wise man.

A Metaphysics of Hope

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:41:00 +0000

Fr. Rohr spoke to us through the writing of Cynthia Bourgeault. Today is a day which must begin in hope.

For as the heavens reach beyond earth and time, we swim in mercy as in an endless sea. —Psalm 103:11

Cynthia Bourgeault explores the idea that mystical hope is something that arises from within us, not as a result of our own effort, but as a fruit of our ability to consciously abide in what she calls “the Mercy” of God. Bourgeault writes:

We ourselves are not the source of that [mystical] hope; we do not manufacture it. But the source dwells deep within us and flows to us with an unstinting abundance, so much so that in fact it might be more accurate to say we dwell within it. . . .

The term I will use to describe this embodying fullness is “the Mercy.” It is the water in which we swim. Mercy is the length and breadth and height and depth of what we know of God—and the light by which we know it. You might even think of it as the Being of God insofar as we can possibly penetrate into it in this life, so that it is impossible to encounter God apart from the dimension of mercy. . . .

The mercy of God . . . is unconditional—always there, underlying everything. It is literally the force that holds everything in existence, the gravitational field in which we live and move and have our being. . . . Mercy is God’s innermost being turned outward to sustain the visible and created world in unbreakable love. . . .

Mystical hope would simply be what happens when we touch this innermost ground [within our own selves] and it floods forth into our being as strength and joy. Hope would be the Mercy—divine love itself—coursing through our being like lightning finding a clear path to the ground. . . .

In this new positioning, the underlying sense of corporateness [oneness] is physically real, for that “electromagnetic field of love” is the Mercy—and the Mercy is the body of Christ. Through this body hope circulates as a lifeblood. It warms, it fills, it connects, it directs. It is the heart of our own life and the heart of all that lives.

Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of truth that sends us forth. When our innermost being is attuned to this pulse it will send us forth in hope, regardless of the physical circumstances of our lives. Hope fills us with the strength to stay present, to abide in the flow of the Mercy no matter what outer storms assail us. It is entered always and only through surrender; that is, through the willingness to let go of everything we are presently clinging to. And yet when we enter it, it enters us and fills us with its own life—a quiet strength beyond anything we have ever known.

Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope: Trusting in the Mercy of God (Cowley Publications: 2001), 20–21, 25, 34, 86–87.

A Sacramental Universe: We haven't kept up the Franciscan traditions

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:09:00 +0000

A Sacramental Universe

Richard Rohr shares how Francis responded to the rising tide of “consumer” culture, which Francis’ father was fully engaged in as a wealthy merchant. Such a lesson for contemplatives today.

This could be a definition of what it means to be a contemplative, which is to look at reality with much wider eyes than mere usability, functionality, or self-interest—with inherent enjoyment for a thing in itself as itself.

____

Francis refused to be a “user” of reality—buying and selling it to personal advantage (the I-it relationship). In fact, that is what he vigorously reacted against, and why he granted personal subjectivity to sun, moon, wind, animals, and even death, by addressing them as brother, sister, friend, and mother. Maybe his seeing, which was both personal and contemplative, is what forced him out and beyond the production-consumption economy where most people find themselves trapped today. Francis grants all of reality, even elements and animals, an intimate I-Thou relationship. This could be a definition of what it means to be a contemplative, which is to look at reality with much wider eyes than mere usability, functionality, or self-interest—with inherent enjoyment for a thing in itself as itself.

Remember, as soon as any giving wants or needs a reward in return, we have backed away from love, which is why even our common notion of “heaven” can keep us from the pure love of God or neighbor! A pure act of love is its own reward and needs nothing in return.

Scholars say that the Franciscan movement following St. Francis himself was not really known for any deep connection with the sacramentality of nature, except for some of the stories and sayings surrounding Anthony of Padua (1195–1231) and Giles of Assisi (1190–1262).

The first, short-lived generation of Franciscans dwelt in caves (carceri) and hermitages apart from the city, in nature, but we soon became gentrified and proper. I can remember my novice master telling us we should not waste or consume or kill unnecessarily; but such teachings were about private virtue and not presented as a social value or a necessity for the good of others and the planet. This was still 1961. I never heard any direct teaching on sustainability or the sacramentality of nature itself in any of my thirteen years in formation. We were trying to be Franciscans in the most developed, capitalized, and industrialized country in the world. “Sacraments” happened in church buildings, but not in the garden or the woods. Once we lost regular contact with primal creation, I believe the Franciscan enterprise largely started to reflect whatever ethnic culture it inhabited, and that was no longer nature or the universe.

With the exception of Indigenous peoples, the sacramental meaning of the world was largely lost until its more recent rediscovery by seers and seekers like Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Sallie McFague, Ilia Delio, Bill Plotkin, Mary Oliver, and Brian Swimme, to name a few luminaries.

We Catholics ended up limiting “sacramentals” to things like religious medals, blessed candles, and holy water, instead of honoring the inherent holiness of the earth’s ores, beeswax, and H2O that actually formed them.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 242–243, 48–50.

Francis never taught "conditional love"-- such as, "you will get a jelly bean if you do what momma says" , where being loving and kind is sort of a quid pro quo. Love is something we earn by being good. This is how wrong headed I am.

Pleasure, or pain?

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 14:38:00 +0000

From Sri Easwaran:
"When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat or pain. These experiences are fleeting; they come and go. Bear them patiently. "
--------- BHAGAVAD GITA

The Gita does not say that we should not go after pleasure. When I first heard this from my grandmother, I really took to the Gita immediately; but I wasn’t expecting what she said next: “The Gita doesn’t say not to go after pleasure; it says that when you go after pleasure you are also going after pain.”
It is not possible for most of us to accept this. We are always cherishing the distant hope that while no other human being has ever succeeded in isolating pleasure, we are going to perform this miraculous operation and then live in a state of pleasure always. To enter a state of abiding joy we must sometimes say no to pleasure while accepting pain with a smile.
Just as we should not pursue pleasure, we should not pursue pain, either. Pleasure and pain form a single duality of experience.

We must learn to remain calm in both, not clinging to either.

How to Embrace Your Sensitivity and See It as a Strength

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 14:37:00 +0000

How to Embrace Your Sensitivity and See It as a Strength

By Liv W.--https://www.soulove.us/about

Thanks to Liv whose insights struck a nerve with me.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Sensitive people feel so deeply they often have to retreat from the world, in order to dig beneath the layers of pain to find their faith and courage.” ~Shannon L. Alder

Being a highly sensitive person can be rough in a world full of agendas, processes, rules, and numbers. Feelings and senses, being intangible and invisible, are often dismissed because not everyone experiences them in the same way. The intensity of those experiences varies, as well, depending on the individual, which makes it all the more confusing.

Living in a society all about speed and efficiency, feelings can often be perceived as a hindrance to productivity. They are not seen as what they truly are—internal signs and guidance of what needs attention in the present moment.

I came into this world a sensitive empath with a keen intuition. I would pick up energy from my environment, as well as other people, quickly and easily.

Even as a fun-loving and carefree child, I noticed tiny details no one else did and felt things toward them no one else felt. I could be laughing one minute, then at the sight of an injured, struggling bee, stop in my tracks and start to panic because I didn’t want to see it in pain.

I dreaded being sensitive as an adult, especially when I worked in the corporate world. I felt so out of place and different from others, who seemed to just let things roll off their backs and focused on their own goals.

I would sense someone was having personal problems before anyone else knew, or that something was going terribly wrong about a project before it happened, and then I’d want to change direction. I felt those things were more important than the minute detail of who was bringing bagels for the next meeting.

People often saw me as irrational, paranoid, or even difficult because there was no concrete evidence that what I was saying was true. It would take days, weeks, sometimes years for things to surface and prove me right. I often felt frustrated.

For many years, I wished I was less sensitive, that I wasn’t so easily affected by others’ words, expressions, moods, and intentions. I felt my sensitivity had caused me nothing but pain and frustration.

Life would be far easier and less complicated if I wasn’t so sensitive. I could just be blissfully unaware and truck along like everyone else.

The many personal praises I’d received for being kind and compassionate became meaningless because, in my mind, I’d gained nothing in return. I continued to feel overlooked and unappreciated, doubting I had any deeper value to offer the world besides my productivity.

I tried to suppress my feelings for a long time, then went on to read books, join workshops, and acquire self-improvement tools in an attempt to lessen my sensitivity.

Ironically, through that journey, I learned that I had it backwards. I’ve come to not only accept my sensitivity as is, but also see it as a gift and use it every day to my advantage. Now I actually want to strengthen my sensitivity and encourage my feelings to speak louder.

5 Advantages to Being Highly Sensitive

If you see your sensitivity as a liability, as I once did, take a minute to reflect on the many advantages to being highly sensitive…

1. You are self-aware.

You are good at putting yourself in others’ shoes and sensing their feelings. That makes you conscious of your words and actions and how they may affect others.

Having this solid foundation of self-awareness enables you to constantly learn about yourself and how your environment responds to you so you can adjust accordingly if needed. Not everyone has the capacity to respond with sensitivity to others and adapt to unique personalities and situations, but you do, and that helps you along the journey to happiness and personal fulfillment.

2. You are intuitive.

You pick up the abstract and invisible, and you have an ability to detect hidden information. This gives you insights into issues that have not yet surfaced and enables you to identify solutions that benefit you and the people around you.

For example, I was recently put on a call by a client with a web designer I’ve never met. She reacted angrily toward my tardiness (my previous meeting had run late) and the fact I was talking to her in my car and not at my desk.

Even though I’d never spoken with or met her, something told me this wasn’t about me being late. I waited until she was finished and asked her if my client had told her about the design changes I was going to make. She responded immediately: “No, actually this all came as a shock!” I then explained my position and filled in the blanks for her, and she changed her tone right away. She even apologized for her earlier reaction and said that she was having a bad day on top of that.

It was a situation that could have gone very differently if I had taken it at surface value and reacted with annoyance instead of listening to my senses and being empathetic.

3. You have a deep capacity for compassion.

You are compassionate toward others because you feel more deeply and intensely than most. Compassion is one of the most underrated strengths in modern society. While it does not come across as an obvious trait for monetary success, it contributes greatly to anyone’s long-term personal success. It is a required component for love, forgiveness, overcoming setbacks, and sustaining personal and professional relationships.

4. You have higher EQ (emotional intelligence).

You are most likely good at reading others and recognizing what they’re feeling and are better at relationships, whether personal or professional, as a result. Being sensitive to others’ feelings makes you caring and understanding, with a knack for sorting out complicated emotions.

5. You let your heart guide you.

You are soulful and in tune with the essence of who you truly are. Your feelings are the driving force of your desires, needs, and choices in life, which means you don’t simply go through the motions. You are sensitive to subtle internal signs that help you make choices that feel right for you.

5 Steps to Harness Your Sensitivity and Turn it into a Strength

So now that you’ve changed how you perceive your sensitivity, how can you leverage it to help yourself and others?

1. Do not judge yourself.

It’s easy to tell yourself “Stop being so sensitive” or “I have no reason to feel this way” when you hear these things often from others. It’s important to change your internal dialogue and stop shaming yourself for your feelings. They come up for valid reasons and they deserve your attention.

2. Practice gratitude.

Thank the universe for your sharp senses and live as if you consciously chose to have them. The more gratitude you show toward your gift of sensitivity, and all its advantages, the more you will embrace and understand it.

3. Trust the energy or messages you pick up.

You feel what you feel for a reason. Your job is to figure out what that reason is. Regardless of how nonsensical your feelings may seem, respect them, honor them, and explore them further.

Your feelings could be a reaction to someone who triggered something inside you, or they could indicate something that needs to be resolved so you can move forward in life. Trust that your feelings are guiding you toward the next steps in your journey. Don’t react until you have an understanding of the message or lesson to be learned.

4. Establish an emotional (or energetic) boundary.

You likely pick up other people’s feelings and moods so readily and easily it can become confusing or even overwhelming at times. Pay close attention to the way you feel or react. Are your feelings your own, or is your energy being swayed by someone else’s? Whenever your energy is affected by your environment, take a deep breath in through your nose, exhale from your mouth completely. And recenter yourself.

It will also help to practice mindfulness, perhaps by developing a consistent yoga or meditation practice, so you can more easily recognize when you’re being affected by someone else’s energy.

Remember, there will always be people who seem to clash with you. Expect it and let it be okay while maintaining your own emotional space by consciously choosing the energy you want around. If you feel the energy of anger, frustration, or doubt reentering your space, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and choose again.

5. Help others.

Highly sensitive empaths are likely in this world for the purpose of spreading kindness or healing others. Because you have been through so much internally, you have a soft spot for others who are going through painful experiences. Whether you choose to do so as a career or just by being there for someone who crosses your path, you have the ability to touch someone on a deeper level and help release their hurt. Don’t let that talent go to waste!

—

I hope this has helped you see what a gift sensitivity really is. As you understand your sensitivity and gain more trust and confidence toward it, you will feel more empowered to use it every day to your advantage, just as I have.

Voluntary Attention: an excerpt from 'Living Presence'

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 16:26:00 +0000

"Why study attention? What is the faculty of attention? It could almost be said that a human being is attention. Whatever occupies our attention-whether inwardly or outwardly, whether profound or trivial--is what we are at that moment.

Therefore, if we are attentive only to the outer world, we forfeit our inner life.

On the other hand, if we are excessively introverted, we cut ourselves off from the impressions of the outer worlds that could enrich and enliven us. If we attend only to the material world, we sacrifice the spiritual. If we think we can focus exclusively on the spiritual, we might lose ourselves in a world of dreams that never connect with reality. We need not only attention, but balance

- balance between the narrow and the wide, and the inner, the material and the spiritual.

Life requires so much of us that none of us can afford to be without our full attention.

More often than we know, moments come that will make a difference to the quality of our lives. These are moments of choice that will never come again. They are moments of service, because others need our presence and attention, and moments of understanding in a world of much misunderstanding.

The study of the attention is also the study of the ego, and the essential self. One of the qualities of the ego is that it has little attention of its own; instead, its attention is captured and compelled by what it likes and dislikes. The Awakened Self, on the other hand, can direct and sustain attention.

Observe how much of our attention is absorbed in the struggle between like and dislike. Attention roams freely and unconsciously until it strikes on something that wither attracts or repulses it; then it is caught. Presence allows us to notice how and when attention is caught, and how to free it again. as we begin to see what compels our attention and why, we also weaken the tyranny of the ego, and begin to create an Impartial Observer.(an essential facet of the Awakened Self).

~ "Living Presence- A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self", pp. 34-35, Kabir Edmund Helminski.

blogger's note: After the Old, and New Testaments, and portions of the Nag Hammadi texts(Gospel of Thomas, Mary Magdalene, Philip and others), I consider this work of Helminski to be sacred and definitely it is wisdom that is from the Creator. I suggest this book for those who might seek to become more directed towards inner spiritual and emotional/ego understanding and overall development.

Spark of the Divine- within

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 12:11:00 +0000

Richard Rohr's post this morning is particularly meaningful.

Spark of the Divine
Friday,  August 7, 2020

Matthew Fox has studied, written, and taught on theology and the mystics for decades. In one of his books on Meister Eckhart, Fox writes:

In the soul, Eckhart maintains, there is “something like a spark of divine nature, a divine light, a ray, an imprinted picture of the divine nature.” [1] . . . But we have to make contact with this divine spark by emptying ourselves or letting go. And then we will know the unity that already exists. [2]

Indian-born teacher Eknath Easwaran (1910–1999) puts it in similar terms:

Life’s real and highest goal . . . [is] to discover this spark of the divine that is in our hearts. . . . When we realize this goal, we discover simultaneously that the divinity within ourselves is one and the same in all—all individuals, all creatures, all of life. [3]

Meister Eckhart was frequently criticized by his contemporaries (and still is by some people today) because his language was far too unitive. We like our distinctions! We don’t want to hear that we have the same soul as our enemies, not our personal ones and certainly not our cultural or global ones! We want to hate them, don’t we? And far too often our religion seemingly gives us permission to do so. But mystics don’t hate anyone. They simply can’t. They pray, as Jesus does on the cross, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The mystic knows the other person doesn’t know. It’s not malice as much as ignorance and unawareness. And, of course, it’s a burden to know; it’s a responsibility to know, because once we know that God has inhabited all that God has created, then all of our distinctions are silly. They are just ways to create self-importance and superiority for ourselves and put down someone else. We’ve played this game since grade school!

Mysticism begins when we start to make room for a completely new experience of God as immanent, present here and now, with and within all of us. God isn’t only transcendent, “out there,” and separate from me. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote that God is “more intimate to me than I am to myself.” [4] St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) said, “My me is God: nor do I know my selfhood except in God.” [5] Like all mystics, they overcame the gap, and we can too. When God is no longer out there or over there, we have begun the mystical journey. It’s not simply that we have a new relationship with God. It’s as though we have a whole new God!

That's what Meister Eckhart meant when he said, “Let us pray to God that we may be free of God.” [6] That’s not sacrilege; that’s a beautifully humble prayer because we know that our present notion of God is never all God is. As Augustine boldly stated, “Si enim comprehendis, non est Deus” (“If we comprehend it, it is not God”). [7] Our present experience is never enough, but it is gratefully where we begin, and these mystics teach us that we grow with each experience of God.

Wisdom in Times of Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 12:36:00 +0000

Change Is Inevitable
Sunday,  July 5, 2020

The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But the mystery of transformation more often happens not when something new begins, but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart—chaos—invites the soul to listen at a deeper level, and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place. Most of us would never go to new places in any other way. The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, dark night, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is, it does not feel good and it does not feel like God.

We will normally do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart, yet this is when we need patience and guidance, and the freedom to let go instead of tightening our controls and certitudes. Perhaps Jesus is describing just this phenomenon when he says, “It is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). Not accidentally, he mentions this narrow road right after teaching the Golden Rule. He knows how much letting go it takes to “treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12).

While change can force a transformation, spiritual transformation always includes a disconcerting reorientation. It can either help people to find new meaning or it can force people to close down and slowly turn bitter. The difference is determined precisely by the quality of our inner life, our practices, and our spirituality. Change happens, but transformation is always a process of letting go, living in the confusing, shadowy space for a while. Eventually, we are spit up on a new and unexpected shore. You can see why Jonah in the belly of the whale is such an important symbol for many Jews and Christians.

In moments of insecurity and crisis, shoulds and oughts don’t really help. They just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding into unhealthy patterns. It’s the deep yeses that carry us through to the other side. It’s that deeper something we are strongly for—such as equality and dignity for all—that allows us to wait it out. It’s someone in whom we absolutely believe and to whom we commit. In plain language, love wins out over guilt any day.

-Fr. Richard Rohr

The truly “narrow gate and hard road that few follow upon”

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 14:54:00 +0000

From Franciscan Mystic, Fr. Richard Rohr...

Facing Reality
Friday, September 13, 2019

To love is to be conscious, and to be fully conscious would mean we are capable of loving.

Sin always proceeds from lack of consciousness.

Most people are just not aware and not fully living in their own present moment. When Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34), he was absolutely right. Most people are on cruise control, and most of their reactions are habituated responses—not fully conscious choices.

We may have moments when we are conscious of our real motivations and actual goals, but it takes years of practice, honesty, and humility to be consistently awake. Whenever we do not love, we are at that moment unconscious. If we consistently choose to defend our imagined state of separateness, then, spiritually speaking, we are unconscious, or in religious language “in sin.” As has often been said, unless we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our life and we will think of it as fate.

Spiritual maturity is to become aware that we are not the persona (mask) we have been presenting to others. That is why saints are humble and scoundrels are arrogant. We must become intentional about recognizing and embracing our shadows. Religion’s word for this is quite simply forgiveness, which is pivotal and central on the path of transformation.

This can be painful as we realize that even when we thought we were loving, we often really weren’t. And when we thought we were bad and sinful, we often weren’t that either! Facing reality is also liberating because we recognize that our manufactured self-image is nothing substantial or lasting; it is just created out of our own mind, desire, and choice—and everyone else’s opinions of us! The movement to second-half-of-life wisdom requires serious shadow work and the emergence of healthy self-critical thinking—but without condemning or shaming that same self. That is the truly “narrow gate and hard road that few follow upon” (Matthew 7:14).
There is no shortage of opportunities to discover your personal or corporate shadow. As Jung said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” [1] In the end, the face we turn toward ourself is the face we will turn toward the outer world.

**************************************************************************************************************
Reflections:
My momentary, daily focus is to attend to the present moment. To consciously do my work, both my agency work, and spiritual work. This word from Rohr, who is so insightful, spoke to me so directly today, I felt I had to share it.
cSS

"Unknowing"-- from Richard Rohr- poignant at this time of Supreme Court hearings

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 16:28:00 +0000

Darkness and Light

Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one. —Psalm 139:12
Perhaps the most universal way to name the two spiritual traditions of knowing and not-knowing is light and darkness. The formal theological terms are kataphatic or “affirmative” way—employing words, concepts, and images—and apophatic or “negative” way—moving beyond words and ideas into silence and beyond-rational knowing. I believe both ways are good and necessary, and together they create a magnificent form of higher consciousness called biblical faith.
The apophatic way, however, has been largely underused, undertaught, and underdeveloped since the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. In fact, Westerners became ashamed of our “not-knowing” and tried to fight our battles rationally. For several centuries, Christianity in the West has been in a defensive mode, a siege mentality where not-knowing and the mystical tradition are considered too risky.
If we are going to talk about light, then we must also talk about darkness, because they only have meaning in relation to one another. In much of the world’s art, the sun and the moon are pictured together as sacred symbols. The solar light gives glaring brightness but paradoxically creates defined shadows. Patriarchal religions usually preferred “sun” gods and the worship of fire, light, and order. While order and clarity are good, they also give us an arrogance about that very order and clarity. The very sun that illuminates also blinds, dehydrates, and kills when we get too much of it.
Lunar light is much more subtle, filtered, and indirect, and in that sense, more clarifying and not so quickly conclusive. Note that when God first divided light from darkness, God did not call it “good” (Genesis 1:3). At the very beginning of the Bible we are warned that we cannot totally separate light from darkness, or the two have no meaning. The whole of Creation exists inside of one full cycle: “Evening came and morning came and it was the first day” (Genesis 1:5). Separating them is apparently not good!
All things on earth are a mixture of darkness and light. When we idolize things as totally good or condemn otherness as totally bad, we get ourselves in trouble. Jesus simplifies this task by saying: “God alone is good” (Mark 10:18). Even the good things of this world are still subject to imperfection, wounding, and decay. I find it very hard to admit, but often tragedies produce much good fruit and good people.
Jesus is a “lunar” teacher, patient with darkness and slow growth. He says, “The seed is sprouting and growing but we do not know how” (Mark 4:27). He even shockingly says to let the good and bad seeds grow together until the harvest (Matthew 13:30). He seems to be willing to live with non-perfection, surely representing the cosmic patience and freedom of God, who is Infinite Love and Life that finally fills all the gaps. When you are God and you know you will ultimately “win”—because Love will always win—you do not have to nail everything down along the way. You can work happily and even effectively with “mustard seeds” (Mark 4:31) and with “the good and bad alike” sitting at the same table (Matthew 22:10).

From SS: We judge so harshly. Jesus teaches us a different way. Let the wheat and the chaff continue to grow together. Don't be so quick to come to judgment. Light and Darkness are contained in and of a continuum, a spectrum. No one is pure light. We all possess a measure of darkness...politics is a great example of the rush to judgment...I do it and have done it. All of us do, to an extent. Reserve judgement. Things will clarify as the light exposes the shadow fully.

Kill me first!

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:04:00 +0000

from "Living Presence"- Kabir Helminski.

According to Attar's "Remembrance of the Saints", a group of prominent Sufis were denounced as blasphemous heretics before the Caliph of Baghdad. The Caliph ordered them to appear before him.
Without trial the Caliph ordered these five pious men-Abu Hamza, Raqqam, Shebli, Nuri, and Junaid-- to be immediately slain. The executioner was about to slay Raqqam when Nuri thrust himself fearlessly into Raqqam's place. Laughing with joy, he cried, "Kill me first!"
"It's not your turn yet, said the executioner, "and a sword should not be wielded to hastily."
"I wish to die first. I prefer my friends to myself. Life is the most precious thing in this world, and I would like to give the last minutes to serving my brothers. I do this even though one moment in the world is dearer to me than a thousand years in the next. For this world is the place of service, while the other world is the place of intimacy with God. But intimacy for me is here in service."
These words of Nuri were reported to the Caliph, who eventually freed the men, saying "If these men are unbelievers, then I declare that on the face of this earth, not one true believer exists."
Then the Caliph summoned the men before him and asked, "Is there anything you want from me?"
"Yes", they replied. "Forget us. We want neither your your honor nor your banishment. The two are the same to us."
The Caliph wept bitterly and dismissed them with all honor.

This is an analogy describing freedom from the fear of loss.

Finding the One in the Many

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 15:18:00 +0000

---excerpt from Fr. Richard Rohr, explaining what he believes to be true about the Perennial Tradition. Rami Shapiro illuminates his teaching. Very instructive in my own spiritual and metaphysical understanding.

Finding the One in the Many
Sunday, August 5, 2018

Over the next several weeks, I will explore the divine image and likeness in many spiritual streams throughout history and around the world. I can’t even attempt to give an exhaustive study—there are so many wonderful examples from the Perennial Tradition. I’ll simply focus on the religious expressions which have most influenced and broadened my own life.

The Jewish mystical teacher Rabbi Rami Shapiro writes:

To me, religions are like languages: no language is true or false; all languages are of human origin; each language reflects and shapes the civilization that speaks it; there are things you can say in one language that you cannot say as well in another; and the more languages you speak, the more nuanced your understanding of life becomes. Judaism is my mother tongue, yet in matters of the spirit I strive to be multilingual. [1]

Shapiro describes Perennial Wisdom as “the fourfold teaching at the mystic heart of the world’s religions”:

all life is a manifesting of a single Reality called by many names: God, Tao, Mother, Allah, Nature, YHVH, Dharmakaya, Brahman, and Great Spirit among others;
human beings have an innate capacity to know the One in, with, and as all life;
knowing the One carries a universal ethic of compassion and justice toward all beings; and
knowing the One and living this ethic is the highest human calling. [2]
I want to emphasize contemplative insights and practices that help us heal our sense of separation and isolation, experience connection and community, and awaken a sense of responsibility for all beings. I hope to show how each of the great spiritual traditions can help us rediscover our True Self—indwelled by God—and live into our fullness as co-creators of our world.

In the words of my friend and one of our CONSPIRE 2018 teachers, Mirabai Starr:

Taoism offers context for the entire spiritual enterprise in the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching: The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. Buddhism affirms that there is only one of us, and therefore we are each responsible for every link in the web of being. Christianity offers us the unconditional mercy of an incarnational God who permeates the whole of creation with love. Judaism urges us to demonstrate our love for God in the way we treat each other and care for creation. Hinduism kindles the fire of devotion for reunification with the Beloved who is no other than our own true Self. Islam shares the peace that comes with complete submission to the One. [3]

All wisdom traditions stream toward the same ocean of union.

Gateway to Presence:
If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.

[1] Rami Shapiro, http://rabbirami.com.

[2] Rami Shapiro, http://rabbirami.com/perennialist/.

[3] Mirabai Starr in The World Wisdom Bible: A New Testament for a Global Spirituality, Rami Shapiro, ed. (Skylight Paths Publishing: 2017), vii-viii.

Is there any way to avoid Karma?

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Wed, 02 May 2018 13:54:00 +0000

A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks, or does is without consequences.
– Norman Cousins

Galatians 6:7-9(KJV)

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

This Judeo-Christian scriptural truth, illustrated by the concept of photosynthesis and growth of vegetation from the Letter to the Galatians, by the founder of Christianity, Saul of Tarsus, nee "Paul", is also even more sharply defined and enumerated in other traditions.
The Hindu and Buddhist scriptures give us the same general truth in what is called the law of karma, which is the psychological equivalent to the physical law that every action has a reaction equal and opposite to it.
This "law" of reality makes inherently a lot of sense to me, something I never was taught in Sunday School.
The Buddha says we can fly higher than the heavens or hide in the depths of the earth, but we will not be able to escape the consequences of our actions. Though we drive to another city or fly to another country, though we change our job or our name, our mistakes will pursue us wherever we go.

Paradoxically, the only way we can begin to escape from the consequences of our actions is to stop running from them and to face them with fortitude.
In this sense, every difficult situation is a precious opportunity.

When we find ourselves in some situation where we always make the same mistake, if we can manage not to make that mistake, the chain can be broken.

Often, if we face it squarely, that situation will not come up again.

One can hope.

Lord Christ, let me be nothing

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:53:00 +0000

Be my mirror, able to sort out the thoughts and intentions of my own sullied and sinful heart.

Please Lord Christ, liberate me from my own self.

By your spirit, help me not to evaluate, judge, or act.

Help me to be nothing, so that I may receive something.

Save me, Lord, from my own tyrannical ego, my own self,

my own tyrannical ego/self

-From my own judgments

-from my own opinions

-from my own feelings about everything, about anything

Through your Spirit - enable me to allow your love to guide and control my seemingly always undisciplined emotions.

May my own tyrannical emotions, and ego, my own self, may it die.

Like the mystics say, may I “die before I die”.

So that my life and my motives may be “born again”.

May my personhood and my “personality” be in direct continuity with your life, your love, your “mind”.

For I am created in Your Image.

Who “I am” is a further breathing forth of the eternal and perfect “I AM WHO I AM” of the Creator.

May I constantly live out of your “being”, your consciousness.

May you precede and perfect all I am doing and how I am acting.

Knowing that God, The Creator Himself actually took on human flesh to teach us our own identities— in Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” —Galatians 2:20

As a camel ambling about...

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 12:23:00 +0000

God has given us a dark wine so potent that,  drinking it, we leave the two worlds.
God has put into the form of hashish a power  to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.
God has made sleep so  that it erases every thought.
God made Majnun love Layla so much that  just her dog would cause confusion in him.
There are thousands of wines  that can take over our minds.
Don't think all ecstacies  are the same! 
Jesus was lost in his love for God. 
His donkey was drunk with barley.
Drink from the presence of saints, 
not from those other jars.
Every object, every being,  is a jar full of delight.
Be a connoisseur,  and taste with caution.
Any wine will get you high. 
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,
the ones unadulterated with fear, 
or some urgency about "what's needed."
Drink the wine that moves you  as a camel moves when it's been untied,
and is just ambling about.

---------------Mathnawi IV, 2683-96 The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks

Living in Wisdom, from the Gita

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 13:12:00 +0000

Living in Wisdom

The Bhagavad Gita

Passages for Meditation

Arjuna :
Tell me of those who live in wisdom,
Ever aware of the Self, O Krishna;
How do they talk, how sit, how move about?

Sri Krishna:
They live in wisdom
Who see themselves in all and all in them,
Whose love for the Lord of Love has consumed
Every selfish desire and sense craving
Tormenting the heart. Not agitated
By grief or hankering after pleasure,
They live free from lust and fear and anger.
Fettered no more by selfish attachments,
They are not elated by good fortune
Nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs,
The wise can draw in their senses at will.
Aspirants abstain from sense pleasures,
But they still crave for them. These cravings all
Disappear when they see the Lord of Love.
For even of those who tread the path,
The stormy senses can sweep off the mind.
But they live in wisdom who subdue them
And keep their minds ever absorbed in me.

When you keep thinking about sense objects,
Attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire,
The lust of possession which, when thwarted,
Burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment
And robs you of the power to learn from
Past mistakes. Lost is the discriminative
Faculty, and your life is utter waste.

But when you move amidst the world of sense
From both attachment and aversion freed,
There comes the peace in which all sorrows end,
And you live in the wisdom of the Self.

The disunited mind is far from wise;
How can it meditate? How be at peace?
When you know no peace, how can you know joy?
When you let your mind follow the Siren
Call of the senses, they carry away
Your better judgment as a cyclone drives
A boat off the charted course to its doom.

Use your mighty arms to free the senses
From attachment and aversion alike
And live in the full wisdom of the Self.
Such a sage awakes to light in the night
Of all creatures. In which they are awake
Is the night of ignorance to the sage.

As the rivers flow into the ocean
But cannot make the vast ocean overflow,
So flow the magic streams of the sense world
Into the sea of peace that is the sage.
They are forever free who have broken out
Of the ego-cage of I and mine
To be united with the Lord of Love.
This is the supreme state. Attain to this
And pass from death to immortality.

This is a different way of thinking for most of us.

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 13:32:00 +0000

Fr. Richard Rohr expresses the almost indescribable meaning of "The Christ". It is Universal. I resonate with his insight into how he views the second coming of Christ. Fr. Rohr:

Christ is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of God’s nature, sustaining the universe by God’s powerful command. —Hebrews 1:3, Jerusalem Bible

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. The word Christ is a title, meaning the Anointed One, which we so consistently applied to Jesus that to us it became like a name. But a study of Scripture, Tradition, and the experience of many mystics reveals a much larger, broader, and deeper meaning to “the Christ.”

Frankly, it is a metaphysical concept more than a religious one, although almost all people today would see it as a religious name for Jesus.

The above passage from Hebrews says that Christ “sustains the universe.” Christ is a religious concept because it can be used to describe reality in an archetypal, symbolic, and profound way. But it names the shape of the universe before it names the individual who typifies that shape, the one we call Jesus Christ. All of creation first holds God’s anointing (“beloved” status), and then Jesus brings the message home in a personal way thirteen billion years later!

This is a different way of thinking for most of us. The three Synoptic Gospels are largely talking about Jesus, the historical figure who healed and taught and lived in human history; whereas John’s Gospel presents the trans-historical “Christ” (which is why so very few stories in John coincide with Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This Christ is frequently making universal “I AM” statements and claims (see John 6:35, 48; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1), mirroring the unspeakable name of the Holy One in Exodus 3:14. This is very different than the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Among the four Gospels, we have both Jesus and Christ.

Paul also never met the historical Jesus and hardly ever quotes Jesus directly. In almost all of Paul’s preaching and writing, he is referring to the Eternal Christ Mystery or the Risen Christ rather than Jesus of Nazareth before his death and resurrection. The Risen Christ is the only Jesus that Paul ever knew! This makes Paul a fitting mediator for the rest of us, since the Omnipresent Risen Christ is the only Jesus we will ever know as well (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Jesus’ historical transformation (“resurrected flesh”) allows us more easily to experience the Presence that has always been available since the beginning of time, a Presence unlimited by space or time, which is the promise and “guarantee” of our own transformation (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-53). In Jesus the Timeless Christ became time bound, so we could enjoy the personal gaze, as it were (see 1 John 1-2).

Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ.

Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! I believe "the Second Coming of Christ" happens whenever and wherever we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks into history—even before the first Stone Age, humans stood in awe and wonder, gazing at the stars.

Gateway to Silence:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

A point of personal privilege and a sense of Presence

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 17:15:00 +0000

I must confess a "grandfather like" sense of presence in the Spirit this morning.

Because of the miraculous messaging system that is Facebook, I can more ably sense more accurately what I have felt after having been able to be mobile and agile for the past three years.

For those of you who have known me for years, you may not have realized that for about 9 years, I was blessed( along with Leslie) to have served as a college parent/small group docent at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, most of the time in the Camelot period when Julie PR was pastor.(1998-2007-and then intermittently on to 2009).

I was also being taught by my spiritual director, Burt Burleson, about the wider scope of the Spirit’s progressive voice.

During this period of time, I was "the college minister" to so many individuals.

The people I was blessed to have met during this time where little Baylor Bear “cubs”—college students, who were drawn to this community because of the compelling love for Christ and His Children( Men, women in ministry, people of all races and nationalities, the poor, the disenfranchised) that this pastor( Pastor Julie) called us to.

So here we are, almost 10 years into the future from that point in time.(Leslie and I are no longer married..since 2013...)( and Pastor Julie is now in DC)...

And these Cubs, they're grown up "berenstain bears" now and they are in my Facebook feed.

And without fail, each of them is operating "at the top of the class" as outstanding professionals across the spectrum.

Musical leaders and composers, artists of all types, physicians, nurses, professors, writers, lecturers, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, husbands, wives, able bodied citizens of their country. These Cubs are not all American. They reside in all corners of this earth...on every continent.

But they have a bond. Baylor. Calvary.Pastor Julie. Each other.

It’s the Calvary College Fellowship connection.

This experience was a blessing in my life, but now I get to drop in on their lives virtually, and even sometimes in bodily form.

This experience helped me to more readily identify what I am coming to believe is my functional role in life. That of a teacher, a mentor, an encourager, a coach, a public speaker and an instructor.

But this was an exceptionally special time...it was a 'camelot' time for most of us.

Such was/is Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell's leadership. What a gift.

But, back to my epiphany/or sense of presence.

The blessings in this life come from love. Love for others. That bond at Calvary. It was koinonia, a fellowship based on that form of love…phileo— love for our fellow humans.

The founders of the Calvary fellowship were Donovan McAbee and Amy Bigbee (now Grosso) Amy is a doctoral level professional counselor in Georgetown, TX, and Donovan is a professor at Belmont, a theologian, writer, activist and minister in the Christian church in Nashville, TN, after earning a PhD in Scotland.

Both successful in their field, both passionate about their lives, their families. I get to check in with both of them through our Facebook connection.
I am proud to have gotten to know each of them at their formative point, while in college.
Now I am so proud of their progress into becoming powerful examples, and thought leaders, true professionals. This is BU, its awesome alumni.

I could go on and on—there are so many examples.

Just one more--this morning I online chatted with Sam Hemingway, who back in the day- attended briefly as an MK(missionary kid from the Middle East) while at Baylor, and now resides in Sulimaniyah, Iraq with his lovely wife and beautiful children. He is a citizen of Kurdistan. How interesting it is to communicate one on one with people all over the globe. I am so proud of this young man, like I am of all these Cubs.

Like I said, the examples go on and on, much like the blessings of the Spirit. One must awaken to them!

Peace.

Your "Ark of the Covenant", your placeholder for the Source.

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:50:00 +0000

Fr. Richard Rohr spoke to me in his post this morning.

The Ark of the Covenant

Monday, June 27, 2016

In his book The Soul's Journey into God, Franciscan theologian Bonaventure uses a most wonderful Old Testament metaphor to describe the contemplative mind; he says it is like the Ark of the Covenant housed within Israel's temple. Exodus 25 describes in great detail how the Ark was to be built. It was first of all a kind of traveling temple so the Israelites could carry God around with them, wherever they went, until they finally settled the Ark in Solomon's permanent temple. But it didn't really hold God, which would have been idolatrous. The Ark of the Covenant was instead the "place-holder" for God--a brilliant metaphor!

The open space above the Ark of the Covenant was rightly called the "Throne of Mercy." Two golden cherubs protected the empty space, directly facing each other. "In that space," God says, "I will meet you" (Exodus 25:22). Mercy multiplies inside such open and free space. This is the work of contemplation--"guarding your mind and your heart" (Philippians 4:7) so that a Larger Presence can show itself. Such silence and emptiness is open to infinite horizons and True Transcendence in the way that nothing else quite is. Words always whittle God into small parts that we can seemingly grasp and understand. Read Max Picard's classic book, The World of Silence, where he masterfully describes this phenomenon.

The golden cherubs protect an infinite opening, a silent unknowing that is a different kind of knowing altogether, a fully open space that only God can fill and inhabit, never our own small ideas and passing feelings. It is in this eternal, endless space where Yahweh rightly says to Israel, "I will meet you." Every other playing field is far too small.

Protecting infinite, empty, and merciful space is precisely what you do in contemplative practice. Most of what we call thinking is narcissistic reaction to the moment. Moment by moment, you're judging things and labeling them, whether they attract or repel you. That really isn't thinking, but self-centered reactions and the stating of your preferences to yourself. It takes work to return to the Ark of the Covenant, the placeholder space within you that is quiet, that doesn't get caught up in all your commentaries and emotional evaluations, up and down, in and out, with or against. Some kind of contemplative practice will allow you to watch yourself doing all of this and notice how futile it all is. In contemplation, your inner witness is still, like the golden cherubs, and lets everything else float by. It observes and learns from your thoughts and sensations, but it doesn't attach to any of them. It lets go and lets go and lets go.

This takes years of practice, until letting go becomes an art form. You learn not to be so opinionated, not to be emotionally dragged up and down, but to stay in this quiet place that watches everything come and go with calm equanimity. When you learn how to stay here, you'll recognize you are not your thinking and you are not your feelings. What you were thinking even an hour ago, you're not thinking anymore. Therefore it is not you. Your thinking is essentially unstable. Yet most people think they are their thinking! Such a life is inherently insecure. Many people in contemporary secular society have little solid ground on which to stand, to create a mature and happy life.

References:

[1] St. Bonaventure, The Soul's Journey to God, Chapters 5-6 (any translation).

[2] Max Picard, The World of Silence, 1948 (any translation).

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Authentic Transformation (CAC: 2016), CD, MP3 audio download, MP4 video download.

___________

Richard Rohr states in spiritual and biblical terms what those who practice contemplation "know". That of the impartial observer.

Let go, let go, let go.

Functional Role and Biographical Identity

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:29:00 +0000

To what do you pay attention?

Can you see your inner and outer attention as an investment in your own Reality?

Are others drawn to you because you do focus your attention their way?

Do you “pay” attention to people? To their biographical identity?

The chit chat, surface level conversations—is usually based on another person’s biographical identity. “Where are you from? where did you grow up? where did you go to school? for which team do you pull for? what do you do for a living? Who’s your daddy?” ( ad infinitum)

As life proceeds, and the scroll of the present continues to be advanced into our view, we hardly ever get the option as friends/observers who are learning from one another—of moving past the issues and identifications of our biographical identity to focus on the higher and nobler causes of identification and attention.

This is what Helminski calls our Functional Role in life.

I am convicted today that -First, The Creator honors and understands our biographical identity. The Source of all knowledge knows that our biographical identity represents our ego, our personality, our career ambitions.

The aspect of my life flow wherein The Creator tends to open my eyes and creates new vision, new aim and new calling for me is in that of my functional role in this life, in this eternal present. That is my own "I am".

To what functional role are you being called? How can you best fulfill your highest calling in life?

Do I invest my attention in my biographical identity (my title, my degree, job, my reputation, my social media status) or my functional role?

This nexus is where the ego and the transformed observer coexist to create unity.

Do I deal with my friends and colleagues within and about their functional role( aka highest calling), and whether or not they are making progressive steps towards achieving mastery in that role?

Does my attention to what they share lead my friends/students into understanding their highest calling? Their functional role?

In light of this epiphany, I can hear a whisper. In deed, with the experience of 46 years of business and vocation experience, I have identified with several callings from the Source.

One of the primary calling/functional role messages for me is that I am a Teacher. I have a calling to serve as an Encourager.

I am one who cares about other people’s fulfillment and happiness, and is open to hearing the deep callings and aims of others and helping them disseminate the trivial from the eternal.

This seems to apply most to those who just beginning the journey of dealing with life/work. Today, these folks are primarily the millennials with which I am associated in my personal and corporate life.

In the recent past, this insight has jogged my memory of the way this role has manifested in my work and in my personal relationships. For 10 years I acted as the College Ministry leader at my former church. One of the reasons this Role was sustained for 10 years was that it centered around one of my ordained primary functional roles.

One of the reasons which dashed and concluded my former job as a banker was my failure to fulfill my functional role and to properly identify with it. I allowed my ego to “take over”. This is a critical error.

I am aware of my ego’s almost irresistible urge for aggrandizement, for the grandiose.

But I digress.

I have been given the gift of remembrance. I remember people’s names, once I have focused and become centered so that I have paid attention to who they are.

This too is an aspect of this role-that of a teacher, and encourager.

All the other roles I am called to in this life seem to pale in comparison. Teaching and Encouraging seem to bring more contentment to my life than any other roles, such as that of a Leader, and Executive, or a Director.

If I fulfill my natural, functional role, the others will be fulfilled as well.

Let me see your ID

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:20:00 +0000

From "Living Presence":

Identification with other humans, issues, causes or beliefs, is an intentional, focused, concerted way of giving/or paying attention to another.

In our inner world we can begin to notice our own identification—the involuntary and unconscious absorption of our attention in inner processes.

At one moment, we consciously tell ourselves to be patient, kind, generous, and then in another moment, we forget that intention and become immersed in a desire or a frustration that has so captured us that we have lost our observing attention and are racing out of control in just that state we were seemingly determined to avoid.

We lose ourselves, through identification.

Perhaps we have a choice.

When do I choose to identify? What are the results?

I was once a singer in an ensemble we named, “Choose Joy”. It was taken from a Larnelle Harris song of that name. One could insert “Choose Love”. These are quite appropriate mantras. If you haven’t chosen a personal meditation mantra, there are a couple worthy of your attention.

It is a way to return to balance, in your inner life.

I like the way David the King reflected on eternity, when he mused, “your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” He was resting his attention on truth, the eternal qualities embodied in the Creative Word.

As father Helminski reminds, giving free will, or choice to the life of the observer, through conscious, deliberate and voluntary attention is a creative act, bringing positive and fulfilling value to our lives.

With what do I identify?

Budgeting your attention

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:17:00 +0000

Helminski has once again captured my interest. For the fourth time, I am re-reading the book he wrote, “Living Presence”. He focuses on the concept of voluntary attention.

Helminski poses,”Life requires so much of us that none of us can afford to be without our full attention”.

The saying, “pay attention” subtly explains that attention itself is of great value. “Pay” is to give something of value to another who is selling something. To 'pay attention' is to agree to being fully present in that moment. It gives credence to the military command, “Attention!” It is time to receive orders, or to pay respect.( Respect: another thing for which we must pay. But that is for another post.)

Have you ever noticed that you can be in the midst of telling a story to another and in the midst of that story, the listener loses attention and obviously is not listening to the story anymore?(Perhaps this illustrates that my own stories are not very interesting!)

What strikes me about this quality is that it is as the author says, “The study of attention is also the study of the ego and essential self.”

One of the qualities of the ego is that it has little attention of its own; instead its attention is captured and compelled by its likes and dislikes. The awakened Self, however, on the other hand, can direct and sustain attention.

Nowadays we speak of an “attention deficit”, in fact some describe this trait as a disorder. There are so many situations, issues, objects clamoring for our attention. An attention deficit, most likely, is a natural human trait.

How much of your attention is distracted by the concept of “Like” and Dislike”? Think of social media. On Facebook, one continues to “like” things and by ignoring or limiting attention, “dislike” things. It is obvious that many people “like” cute kittens, or puppies, or pratfalls. Politics also grab our attention, or issues that are important to others.

Attention is like a “free range chicken”. In the presence of the observer, it roams freely and unconsciously until it lands on something, and that issue or video has literally captured the attention of the observer.

As I meditate on this, I realize how much of my attention I waste on trivialities. So much! We are captive to our likes and dislikes. It is an example of our binary mindset. How do we obtain a unified mindset, seeing matters on a continuum, not defining matters under— : “I like that” and

“I don’t like this”?

Life goes by, as a leaf floats down the river, and I as an observer, can choose to allow most leafs to float on by, without comment or attentiveness. These matters can hopefully be sorted according to voluntary attention. In short, I am learning to choose to budget my own attention. There are very many things to which I cannot “pay” attention.

They are simply not in my attention budget!

Enslaved to the fear of loss

noreply@blogger.com (C. Sam Smith) — Mon, 02 May 2016 12:10:00 +0000

From Living Presence, Helminski, p.117:

The more our sense of identity and well-being is determined by extrinsic factors, by things we possess or by what people think of us, the more we are unaware of our own intrinsic worth and the more we are enslaved to the fear of loss.

[We may begin observing this fear, from the impartial observer cultivated by “presence”.]

We may begin by noticing the small fears that control us.

We have fears- of being criticized and rejected, of being alone and separate-
--------unconscious and nagging fears that drain us, because we are not conscious of them.
They have power because we deny their existence.

Once they are recognized and examined, they lost much of their power over us.

One way to overcome those fears that have a paralyzing effect on us is to be decisive and challenging.

Too often we cover our eyes and ears, when what we need to do is squarely face our fears.

We might, for instance, tell the subconscious:

“You are afraid of not being loved and so you hide your real self. You play a role, afraid to show your self as you are. But meanwhile you suffer this abandonment in your imagination a thousand times.

Wouldn’t it be better to be abandoned once rather than a thousand times?

And wouldn’t it be better not to have to pretend?

Isn’t your real self more lovable than your role playing self?

How did you ever talk yourself into living this lie?

Why not face the possibility of loss once and for all?

What is there to lose?”

This process of conscious reasoning is different from our ordinary inner talking. When we reason with ourselves consciously, we are motivated by our highest understanding. In the spaciousness of presence we are using the faculty of will, of conscious choice, by reframing the situation to induce transformation. The subconscious somehow became convinced that fear was necessary; we can convince it otherwise.

We have a right to be free of unnecessary fear.