Have you ever taken a chance? Have you ever thought about doing something that was so beyond anything you’d ever done before that it scared the hell out of you?
The rush you felt, that exhilaration, was not just the adrenaline rush of fear, anxiety, and the unknown, it was Spirit filling your once empty soul, as the new that’s entering your conscious awareness, becomes aware that you are aware of It.
Peace is.
~jtstarke
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~jtstarke
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“It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly that hatred of ourselves which is too deep and too powerful to be consciously faced. For it is this which makes us see our own evil in others and unable to see it in ourselves.”
-New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton
Long ago, I used to prayer to God to deliver me from evil. I never knew then that the deliverance was from my own self. As I move into union with my higher self, I hold the memory who I thought I was to keep centered on my journey to wholeness.
~jtstarke
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What mask do you wear in order to keep people from knowing who you truly are?
Do you even know?
What kind of inquiry have you done to even find out who you are?
We are all meant to be here for a purpose. We are not just here to overpopulate the planet.
Think about it. Beyond all the chaos, crime, hunger, and strife, each of us was put here to serve mankind and the universe in some way. Each one of us is unique and precious. On this journey we can life, each of us adds value to life.
If we can find that, true happiness is ours.
~jtstarke
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“We will never get anywhere unless we can accept the fact that politics is an inextricable tangle of good and evil motives in which, perhaps, the evil predominate but where one must continue to hope doggedly in what little good can still be found”.
-New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton
Richard Rohr also talks about the complete person being beyond the “broken world” and, in a broader dialog, that without spirituality we are incomplete, not a whole person. This is a similar to what Thomas Merton speaks to in his writings about the whole person being a balance between the ego-driven human self and the spiritual, higher self. Then we can see beyond the politics and we can go from “Who has the power here?” to, “How can I serve here?” First, we have to find ourselves and then we can be happy with whatever the world throws at us while asking “how can I help?”
~jtstarke
“WE do not see God in contemplation—we know Him by love: for He is pure Love and when we taste the experience of loving God for His own sake alone, we know by experience Who and what He is.” ~Thomas Merton, “New Seeds of Contemplation,” pg. 268
~rev jim
www.spirit-edu.com/learn/ “New Seeds of Contemplation”
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We are always “in the presence.” What do I mean by that? Being a spiritual person, I believe in God. You can call it Buddha, Mohammed, Great Spirit, Elohim, Divine Source, universal Love, Source Vibration, Divine Impulse, the energetic vibration of the universe, self, or whatever works for you.
The problem is, as mere mortals with all sorts of “stuff” going on in our lives, both good and bad by our judgment, we tend to edge “The Presence” out in lieu of other more important or more pressing things. How strange…
What could be more important in our life than our health, prosperity and happiness? And what ultimately ensures this? Could it be our relationship with ourself? Isn’t the basis of a superior relationship with ourself, “Love?” And, if as Jesus says, “Seek the kingdom of God within you,” then, in order to “practice the presence,” we must first and foremost seek what we need within ourselves, by seeking our own counsel. When we seek our own counsel, we must discard all that does not equate with Love in order to “practice the presence.”
So, can we “practice the presence” all the time? Absolutely. As long as we are consciously “in love” we are ‘Practicing the Presence.” Try it some time, when all around you seems chaotic and crazy; just be.
~rev jim starke
www.spirit-edu.com/learn/ “New Seeds of Contemplation”
Online Spiritual Education
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“the mere ability we human beings have to sing the praises of love and compassion is a most precious gift.”
-Dali Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium, Ch.5
As I facilitated a course based on the Dali Lama’s book, I saw this as a timely issue, because both ethics, and compassion are based in Love.
Without Love, we lack the ability to have empathy and therefore compassion. We live in relationship with others out of common needs and desires for ourselves and those around us. When we are separate from love, which starts with self-love, we can’t possibly care for others, because we live from fear. As we begin to accept ourselves as we are in the present moment, we move into that place of greater self-acceptance and love becomes an outer expression of that.
Then, as we open to a discourse with someone we don’t know without attaching labels, we tend to find commonality, and when that happens the separation dissolves and the ability to feel compassion for ourselves and others becomes a possibility.
from Love, in Peace,
~rev jim starke
www.spirit-edu.com/learn/ “New Seeds of Contemplation”
Online Spiritual Education
#peace #aworldthatworks
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“In our creation, God asked a question and in our truly living; God answers the question.” ― Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
In the silence, in that place between our thoughts, God is talking to us, telling us that our highest idea of good is what we could be doing.
This comes to us in contemplation. It most likely won’t come to us in guided meditation or in a conversation in a bar. It comes to us in the silence as we lose ourselves to God. As our mind begins to still itself and we don’t realize that we don’t even recognize our breathing, we may be in that place of direct connection with Spirit and the out-picturing of that experience may leave us with an idea of significant importance for us.
We just need to be aware and open to it.
~rev jim
www.spirit-edu.com/learn/ “New Seeds of Contemplation”
Online Spiritual Education
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
#peace #aworldthatworks
Thomas Merton says that “we know Him (God) in so far as we are known by Him.”
I experienced this connection with Spirit on occasion in my thirties in a humorous way. God apparently enjoys an occasional game of pool. The first time I experienced this connection, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but it affected me deeply. The game started as it usually does, with the break. We play that we must call all our banks and combinations of balls used on the table to sink our intended shots. After the break, which is always a “smash and bash” for me, just spreading out the balls across the table, my opponent took his turn and sank four balls.
My next shot was a bank shot the full length of the table bringing the cues back to sink a ball in the corner pocket. As I viewed the shot and the sweet spot, my tinnitus disappeared, and my sight became truly blindered to blot out everything but the shot. As I pulled back on the stick to connect with the ball,I actually felt some restraint in my follow through of the shot limiting more than I would the power with which I connected with the cue ball. The shot was perfect and the leave for the subsequent shot was also spot on. This continued as I mouthed the calling of my shots right up to the 8 ball. As I ran the table, I felt a flush in my face. My opponent was silent up to that point, a bit dumbfounded, I suppose, as was I in retrospect. When he realized “I” was about to run the table, he came over and gave me a big Pat on the back of congratulations. Everything returned to normal, and I missed the 8 ball shot.
He then ran the rest of the table, which was more usual, and I just sat there wondering what had just happened. It happened a few more times over the next few years, and I really enjoyed being the observer of the pool game “I” was playing. I have experienced things like this in different ways during my life, but I always enjoyed the experience of God playing pool through me.
Today, much in the same way as my pool experience, I experience the same “presence” when I am in prayer. It is truly a humbling experience.
