Category: empathy

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Love matters

one-heartWe all have one heart
And one heart needs another
Love, love is all that matters
Love is all that matters, it matters after all.
~ Diana Ross, Love is all that Matters

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if Christ is a name for the immense spaciousness of all true Love?
~ Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

Love, what do we make of it?

I know this. Love is that all encompassing, all knowing and everywhere present presence of Love, which lives deep in the heart of each and every one of God’s creations, every one and thing in this infinite universe. This truth knows no limits, only individuals in separation, and separation is never whole or complete and is therefore ultimately subservient to Love.

As I bring this into consciousness, I know that Love always comforts the afflicted and afflicts those who are complacent and comfortable in whatever truth they tell themselves, which is not in alignment with Love.

So, I know for each of us who seeks or shares truth can expect and embrace the uncomfortable nature of the truth which Love exposes in our world and continue to speak their truth.

That truth is ever present in the teachings of all the great master teachers, but none so clear or misinterpreted as “The Great Commandment,” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:36-39)

In this knowing “Love thy neighbor as thyself, we can only grow as individuals, as ministers, as an organization and above all in the One Heart.

I am grateful in this truth and in Love and just continue to allow it to be in my life and know it therefore for each and all in the One Heart, One World, and One Eternal, Spiritual life.

~revjim

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Can Peace be Attained?

I feel obliged to speak a little about Peace as it pertains to today’s world.

So much of the world is polarized right now by the political climate that exists, not only in this country, but around the world. So much so, that there no longer seems to be any common ground from which we can begin to build a lasting peace.

Yes, all that seems crazy, but I believe it is marking a move into a more conscious, compassionate and empathetic world. We are in the throes of change to a higher consciousness and everyone and everything that is unwilling to make the change is revolting. Eventually they will all just fall by the wayside. Patience and prayer are key. Change is the only constant.

I know it’s difficult to watch and read about the unfolding chaos, but whenever there is great change in the offing, there is great turmoil. We have seen great change in the past. It always seemed slow at first, but then it just seemed to explode.

For more than two millennia the only form of travel on the water was by oars or sail. It was only 200 years ago the first steamship sailed forth and now there are ships that travel the oceans at over 60mph.

Again, more than two millennia ago the stories of Daedalus and his son Icarus took flight, but until 100 years ago, manned flight in a powered craft was still only in its infancy. Today we have been to the moon and beyond.

So tonight, let us know that if we are willing to take this high road of non-resistance, the potential for change can be more swift and more dramatic than we ever thought it could.

How can we effect this change?

There is only one way to effect change on a massive scale and that is for everyone to be of one mind. We know the truth of this is that we already are, but until there is a blanket realization of this, all of humanity’s fractured ideas of God — my god, your god and their god being thought of as different — until we can come together and accept that all of our different ideas of God are just a matter of semantics and that God is God is God, we will not be united in a peace that passes all understanding.

As I see it, LOVE is the way, the only way to achieve this lofty goal of bringing heaven to earth. Love is the glue that can binds us together. Love is the only path we can follow to return to the Garden of Eden.

Love is the only way to wash away the mistakes of all our lifetimes, so that we may start anew.

So, let us take this word LOVE and hold it close, and let us meditate for the next ten minutes on LOVE and know that as we begin to know this wholly in ourselves, we know it unfolds in this unified field of connectivity to which we all belong.

So join me in silent recognition for LOVE. Take about 10 minutes, if you have to time and sit in silent prayer for a better world, a “WorldThatWorksforEveryone.

in peace, rev jim

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What is the contemplative experience?

merton-to be“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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Go inward to change the outer.

courage-typography-design_1957874“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
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

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From Abraham-Hicks Daily Quotes

Our Diversity Supports Our Individual Freedoms… While your societies continue to try to dictate and enforce human behavior to please the majority – because of your diversity, it continues to be an uncomfortable struggle that, again and again, falls of its economic weight. There simply is not enough money in the world to buck the natural currents of individual freedom and independence of thought.

—Abraham

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