Category: a world that works

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Make a Joyful Noise

“By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this ‘neuroplasticity.’”

~Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

 

I watched a video by Jane Goodall this morning on YouTube called Mother Earth (https://youtu.be/48mxaQtbUdU) in which she spoke about the interdependency of all life on the planet. She spoke of how we, as a species have single-handedly in the last 100 years (my words) have managed to cause and continue to cause the mass extinction of many species of flora and fauna by not being the good stewards of the earth (again, my words) and have instead allowed or contributed to the destruction by either our direct participation or silence while it was allowed.

She spoke of how we have left a dire legacy to our children and the children of future generations.

Richard Rohr, in “The Universal Christ” speaks of how our brain can be rewired toward Love. It is my hope for the world and for humanity that the mindset of those who have the power in their hands to help all life thrive will come to the realization before it is too late to set aside their myopic views of this world and see beyond their coffers of riches reaped to understand their unconscious contributions to the imminent destruction of the planet, and know that their wildly excessive riches will turn their coffers into their coffins as well. If the planet dies, they die also.

There is no place to hide and without biodiversity, there is no future.

So, how do we change or reverse this trend or tendency? If we could learn too follow the tenets of the master teacher Jesus, the Christ Consciousness which he speaks to in “Love thy neighbor as thyself” could take us from triumphing over those who seem different from us to embracing all persons regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, politics or any other thing external to us. Our heart is the organ that can save us, if we but learn to control our ego, which keeps us separate from all of our good.

In doing so, we can begin to feel our connection with others and recognize the rights of everyone to a good and fruitful life. We must learn to live without the excesses we are used to. We need to stop promoting “Us before Them” and move into an “Us and them” or We’re all in this together” attitude.

Every religion in its purest, mystical form teaches that “Love is the Way.” This is the One commandment of Jesus, the gist of the teachings of Buddha, one of the core commandments of Judaism, and the basis of the teachings of Rumi and the other mystics of Islam. In addition, compassion is the “most fluently occurring word in the Quran.” In fact, at the center of the Muslim beliefs is the principle of “Oneness.”

If all this is really true, and in theory it is, then the only thing holding us back from embracing “LOVE” is “FEAR.” Fear of being less than! But, less than what?

If we are “LOVE,” we are not less than anything. We are then, what God is, and we have nothing to fear, only Joy to accept.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” Psalm 100:1 (a bible book common to all 3 major Western religions)

~revjim

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Our Spiritual Nature

Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world.

~ Anam Ċara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

 

spi-natOur spiritual nature is an inextricable part of us. Yet, while we do not wear it on our sleeve, it does live within us and there is evidence of it all around us. Nature is all spiritual, because it never exists in opposition to the divine. Man is the only creature on earth that tries to defy nature, creating artificial substances and devices in an attempt to “cheat death,” part of the birth-death-rebirth cycle, which is common to all life.

We are the only creatures, that think ourselves to death. Rather than living in a flow, we create blocks of resistance, which cause us to become out of sync with the world around us. We are the only creatures on the planet that don’t give back to the earth in a natural way. We use, abuse, rape and pillage its natural beauty and resources and leave behind refuse that is indigestible and non-renewable.

Yet, if we just looked to the mystical roots of all of our religions or spiritual paths, we would find that if we did the inner work, spent time looking within ourselves, we would find all the answers to living a gloriously, happy life, that isn’t about consumption and destruction. We would find that whatever we do and whoever we are is enough. We would find that we don’t have to keep up with the Joneses, because we have already surpassed them in the only way necessary. We are happy with our life as it is.

When we are in the flow of life, we find that everything we need is already provided for us. Just as all of nature, unobstructed by man, receives everything it needs, we would receive all that we needed and more. The natural ecosystem is a phenomenally complex system, which provides what is necessary for life. When the system is attacked, it makes necessary corrections to bring itself back into alignment.

We can do the same thing with our lives. If we get out of alignment, we can change how we do things or think about things to bring ourselves back into alignment with life, and find ourselves happier, healthier and more energetic.

~rev jim

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The Circle of Life

treeoflifeThe risen Christ is the standing icon of humanity in its full and final destiny.
He is the pledge and guarantee of what God will do with all our crucifixions.
~from Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation 4.1.18

It is with hope that we are able to move beyond all of the desperate, fearful moments of our life. It is in these times that our faith carries us above any hurtful residues of the past that, without forgiveness, paralyze us and hold us in that story.

Just as, in the story of Jesus, he forgave all those who judged him, conspired against him and thought to bring finality to his life through forgiveness of ourselves and others, we can move out of our old ideas of living and into a new idea for ourselves, and a new paradigm of living consciously and fearlessly. In knowing and taking back our spiritual power, nothing can deter us on our path. Our spiritual path can only be changed by us, because it is not only unique to us individually, but because that path and our beliefs and faith are internal and unseen by others in its full color spectrum.

We are born to “boldly go” where no other person has ever before been. As our paths cross those of others, they have the potential of strengthening each other’s path in previously unknown ways yielding new directions, new challenges and new awakenings, until we come full circle to our beginnings once again.

This circle of life is best served allowing ourselves to move ever forward with the flow of life, instead of pushing against it, just as it is easier to paddle a canoe downstream than to paddle upstream.

~rev jim

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The company we keep

burning-bridges1We often, in spiritual community, speak of being with like-minded people.

The question becomes, “what makes someone a like-minded person?”

My definition may be different from other peoples or even yours. To me, “like minded people are those I can communicate with. We don’t communicate with everyone we speak with. We may speak to some. We may talk at them. We may react to something they say, but we don’t accept them as like minded. Why? Because they don’t have anything in common with us that we can agree upon.

Why is that? Maybe we are unwilling to really “hear” their point of view or ask why they have that point of view, or even to see beyond their point of view. Another possibility is that there is some common ground, as there usually is, but we haven’t dug deeply enough to find it. Maybe they pushed a button that doesn’t allow us in the moment to see a common point. You can revisit the conversation in the privacy of your own mind after you cool off, if you don’t burn the bridge.

Or, just maybe, you have grown so much or so far apart that there is no common ground anymore. Sometimes we just outgrow another. It’s not good or bad, it just is.

So, if you’re grieving the loss of a friend, just be sure your decision is a sound one, or don’t burn your bridges. True friends are hard to find.

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Staying in Pain-Stuck in the Mud

stuck-in-mudThis is something we say we don’t want ever, yet we seem to not be willing to let go of our stories easily. “He did this to me and my life is over” or “she/he cheated on me and I’ll never find another love” or “the bank turned down my loan, and now I’ll be ruined!” We create unnecessary pain for ourselves by wallowing in our stories and making the story our life, when it’s only a single incident, or moment that we can easily move beyond by letting go of that story.

When we stick our foot in the mud, we can’t remove it fast enough, even to the point of releasing our shoe to get unstuck. Why is it so hard to release our old life, if it isn’t serving us? Think about how much happier we could be, or about how much more prosperous we could be by finding new things that would serve us better. We say it’s fear of the unknown, but when the known isn’t working, why not embrace a change?

I recently picked up a couple of hitchhikers and in our conversation they shared they had been living in the woods for six years and had finally scored a camper to live in, but had no place to set it up to live in, so they continued to live in the woods, pick up odd jobs, when available, and move forward optimistically with their lives. They haven’t given up even though their location would seem to make advancing difficult. The word failure wasn’t in their vocabulary. There was no judgment in their voices, nothing holding them back, but there they are embracing the possibility that life will offer them something more than they have right now.

So, what are we afraid of? Reach out for what you want. If it’s not right for you, you can always change!

from Love, in Peace,

~revjim

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International Day of Peace


On September 21st, Spirit Education will be celebrating the United Nations International Day of Peace with an Online Meditation in ZOOM for just that, PEACE!

We need your prayers everyday for peace in these times, and with the efforts of A.G.N.T, the United Nations and millions around the world, we can make our voices known.

Join us online @6:55 pm Eastern or “in consciousness” for a half hour of prayer and meditation.

Spread the word and join us in this audacious quest for “A world that works for Everyone!”

Maximum online load of 100 peace, uplifted souls!

Space is available on a 1st come, 1st served basis, so try to be early.

For Info: and Zoom Meeting Access:  International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st

~revjim

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#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

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Respond or React

We have no means of discriminating between right and wrong if we do not take into account others’ feelings, others’ suffering.
-Dali Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium

r&rIt is in this quote that the idea of “ethics” begins to merge with the ideas of authenticity, compassion, love, and empathy.

As we consciously think about how we want to respond or react to the thought of others, we need to think about how our definitions of right or wrong differ from the thoughts of others and, is what we are wanting to say in reaction to a comment or idea we don’t align with and why do we feel that way? Even more important, what is it in the other person’s life experience that causes them to feel the way they do? The old quote about not judging someone until you have walked a mile in their moccasins comes to mind.

We cannot know what their life has been like. So, in all things, we need to do our due diligence to ascertain why they feel the way they do.

How do we do that? We have a dialogue with them. We engage them in non-confrontational conversation to get to know them. Normally when we learn to engage in this manner, we find that we really are not that far apart in our beliefs and that when we change the way we see what we see, as often happens when we get up close and personal, we are able to find a common ground upon which we can build anew.

~revjim

#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st
We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th

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I trust the process.

rock-balancing“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

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Change your Life

merton07Why change? There are numerous reasons to change one’s life. Most of them boil down to you’re not happy with your life in its present state.

So how do you change it? You change your thinking. You change the way you look at things. By things, I mean your life, your friends, your job, your life experiences.

The first thing you might want to do is, “lose the story of who hurt you or the many things that have led up to where you are now.” Why? Because, unless you allow it to, your past has no power over you today! Even if you were presently in jail, you have the choice of thinking that your life is over. It may be forever changed, but that’s all right. Life is in constant change, and yes, your life may be “on hold” while incarcerated, but every day leading up to your release, you can work on how you can build something new and good for yourself, when you get out.

Those who are not in jail can start right now, in this moment! Be ready to change a lot of things, depending on your life and surroundings. Change can be easy, but usually not. It is though, way more rewarding than staying in an untenable situation. If it’s not working for you, it’s untenable!

Take a leap of faith. You could create the life of your dreams! How great would that be?

-rev jim
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Merton study, coming soon
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