I Burn for your Peace.

This morning was the World Healing Meditation. I wish to thank everyone that was with us either in person or consciousness.

Thank You!5003-1

Just after I got off the call, I read my daily reading from Fr. Richard Rohr, and had to share this quote he used from Augustine of Hippo, from his work, “Confessions”

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. —Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

 

Much Love.

jim

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

Disappointment

disappoint-MLKIt’s something we all feel from time to time. Mostly we feel it from expectations we have made with another. It could be related to a business relationship, a personal relationship or a combination of both.

We all handle it in different ways. In different times of our lives, we may have handled it differently also.  Many get angry, and feel violated, used, or even betrayed by a friend or colleague. We may seek restitution, or revenge.

What I feel today is disappointment. I know it will pass and I know little will change in my life overall. I will continue to do what I am inspired to do.

What I have learned from years of dealing with people is, whenever we put our faith in anything less than our Creator, we set ourselves up for disappointment or regret.

The squishy, gushing, human love we experience as humans is fickle at best. It is subject to emotions, whims, outside opinions and personal likes.

You can see this acting out daily between our press and our president, between democrats and republicans, and between all manner of people, because, as humans, we have expectations that aren’t always met. If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t need an army, law enforcement, or lawyers. We wouldn’t even need laws, because we would all do “what is right.”

This could be the beginnings of a book, but few would follow, so I guess I’ll just end this with a phrase once shared by one of our great masters. It was actually shared by many of or great spiritual teachers of all faiths.

“Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

Peace and Love to you all.

rev jim

shared from Rev. Michelle’s Friday Morning Musing

From This Thing Called You, by Ernest Holmes pg. 60

Everything you have ever thought, said, done, seen, learned or experience, has left an imprint upon your subconscious mind. This subconscious also contains memory images of your family life, your ancestral background and the sum total of what the whole world has thought or believed.
These memories are not dead things. Quite the reverse, they are active.

From The Principles of Healing, by H.B. Jeffrey pg. 74

For healing is largely a matter of contagion. We have used that word as though its meaning were appropriate only to disease and undesirable conditions. We have linked it in our minds with pathological states. But contagion is a perfectly legitimate word in relation to good. there was a contagion of peace and joy, happiness and serenity. There is a contagion of the sense of opulence and bounty.

From me. . .

As practitioners, we are here to represent the Science of Mind teaching as a power for good and for change on our planet. We are here to be a contagion for love, healing and possibility. When random people see YOU, do they see someone walking in the light of Truth? In my mind, this is the goal. In order, to support this high calling though, we must stay aware of the influences that surround us and that preceded us into this incarnation. We each carry with us, not only who we have been in this lifetime, but we carry our ancestors. Are we at the mercy of this? – NO, not ever but we are called to be conscious about it and to treat in a focused way. Taking time to release the pain of the old, to practice forgiveness for what was.
STAYING conscious, in this case means using the only tool we use to direct our mind (or the mind of your client) to a place of freeing oneself from what was – and that means that which has been given to us through the ages. As Dr. Holmes said above: “These memories are not dead things. Quite the reverse, they are active.” I REPEAT, we are not at the mercy of what was, but we are called to do our work in consciousness.

Much love to you on this glorious day! Remain Brilliant, the world needs your brilliance.
Michelle

Guest Blogger:
Rev. Michelle Wadleigh
www.michellewadleigh.com
www.cslnj.org
revmichelle2

Our only enemy is ourself!

“Before making peace, war is necessary, and that war must be made with our self. Our worst enemy is our self: our faults, our weaknesses, our limitations. And our mind is such a traitor! What does it? It covers our faults even from our own eyes, and points out to us the reason for all our difficulties: others! So it constantly deludes us, keeping us unaware of the real enemy, and pushes us towards those others to fight them, showing them to us as our enemies.”

– Hazrat Inayat Khan

mirrorWhat is it about ourselves that always seems to find the faults in another without realizing our own? Is it that we see our own limitations in others? We believe our own thoughts though they may be erroneous, but we can’t do the same for others? Our own limitations don’t allow us to know the truth of others?

To all of these possibilities I would say a resounding YES! And, all of these images of our self are the fantasies of Ego. Our ego is the protective device that reminds us to pull our hand away from a hot flame, dodge a thrown punch, and not to get scammed by con artists. It is our internal alarm system. It is the this system, which keeps us safe.

So, what is it that allows us to be so sure of the collective thoughts of others that we completely dismiss the thoughts of intelligent people with a greater world view for the myopic thoughts of fringe groups with limited, divisive views? Again, it is the ego. When these same myopic views of others grab our attention and begin to appeal to our own limited thinking and we buy into someone else’s self styled view of how God, the world, a particular race or group should be treated, we have given away our power allowing someone else to think for us.

Ego is a powerful protective system, but we can get lazy a put ourselves in even greater jeopardy by not tempering our ego with following our heart. The heart, when we don’t block it out, is the pat part of us which sees beyond our limiting beliefs and allows us to feel. It is the part of us that seems to break in tragedy, and brings us back when our grieving has ended. It is that part of us which builds relationships allowing our interaction with others. It is our true self, our sharing self, our caring self.

It is our spiritual center which defines our divinity. It knows only unconditional love. It is the heart which allows us to be vulnerable, to fall in love, and to want good for the whole world, irrespective of our differences. It is our heart from which compromise springs. And it is a closed heart which commits evil acts, atrocities.

When we begin to act from our heart, this will be a world that works for everyone!

~rev jim

Moving beyond fear!

What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.”
― Sri Aurobindo

MoveBeyondFear“What do you think about that?”someone said to me, referencing something they had heard.
“I have no opinion, because I have no first hand knowledge of what happened,” says I.

Why do people expect you to jump into a conversation you have no first hand experience about? I have found over the years, at least for me, that supporting someone else’s thought becomes a brainless and uncaring act, unless I first know for myself what the many sides of an issue or thought represent and more importantly, where I stand on an issue, if I have a stand at all.

Most of the time I keep my opinions to myself, because I realize that my opinion normally represents a limited understanding of a complex problem, and, if I haven’t fully explored the many facets of a usually simple statement that has been queried, I am only reacting to it, not responding intelligently.

I have found reactions are usually made out of fear of losing something. People are living in such fear today; fear of bodily harm, fear of some right being taken away, fear of being deported, fear of being outed. Fear is a strong and very limiting emotion. It makes us do crazy and unimaginable things. There are people waste their entire lives, promoting promoting fear through words, violence, and making things up about others.

I remember when Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on us in 2016, the SJC Emergency Management Director came through on my cellphone screaming that I had to leave my house right now and evacuate or “I would die!”

I’ve lived through cat4 & 5 hurricanes in the Caribbean and Florida. I’ve been a contractor in both places and had major success in not just surviving hurricanes, but thriving during and after by assisting others. I would never put myself in an unreasonable risk situation. I’ve normally lived on islands where you couldn’t escape anyway, so you hunker down and pray for the best. Florida is no different. There’s no where to go, unless you leave many days before the track is even locked in by our weather guessers. And, as a contractor, I know that, if a building has been built to code, you may get wet, but are probably safe otherwise. If I hit the road, chances are I could end up riding the storm out in the Walmart parking lot in Palatka. Almost a been there, done that. That would be less fun than sitting in a foot of water saving what I can of my belongings.

Anyway, you get the point, fear is our worst enemy, and if we buy into it, we’re already lost. If we are reasonable and don’t allow fear to be our guide, the world really doesn’t look that bad. I approach incidents and situations on a one off. I trust until I’m shown someone or something is untrustworthy. I try not to judge by ethnicity, race, religious beliefs or social position, but I am sometimes ashamed of my behavior, and try to be better, when I catch myself.

There is no place in my life for hate. It only makes life a hell. I see so many people living their lives in a self-imposed hell today. I choose not to. Life in this body is too short. I learned a while ago, I’d rather be happy than right. That’s a story for another time.

-rev jim

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

What Lies Within You?

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.
—John O’Donahue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “what lies outside you matters little to what lies within you.”

lovepowerThere are few in the world that really get this. Said differently in all the religious faiths, by primarily the outliers or esoteric of the religious beliefs, those mystics have recognized that God, Spirit, Divine Mother-Father, Wakan Tanka, or whatever you choose to call It, is the energy behind all that exists. It (God) adds order to what would otherwise be an unordered universe. We, as humans, have the power to make decisions that affect our lives immediately. We also have power to excel and grow, succeed and thrive, limited only by our own willingness to give away that power to others or have it taken away by those who would disenfranchise those they find different by ethnicity, culture, or Religious beliefs, to name a few.

They can never take away power from people in these disenfranchised groups, if these individuals aren’t willing to give up their power. This is evidenced by men such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. These men have been major voices for equality and peace for all peoples in spite of major campaigns to discredit or silence them.

They are equally flanked by powerful women like Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks and many others throughout history who put their lives at risk to fight for equality in their own right.

Try as they might, the powerful white men of history have always been unable to silence these powerful people of history. They could diminish their power somewhat by their control of the press and media and by silencing them with incarceration or death, but their spirit always lived on in others, and their banner was picked up and the struggle has always continued.

Now, white men are either claiming they have been misunderstood or maligned, but there is no place their lust for power and control over others can be misinterpreted. They, and as a white man I should probably say WE, have been responsible for most or all of the ills that exist in the world today. We are responsible for annihilation of entire peoples, all the wars in the world, the enslavement of many worlds of peoples, and for keeping peoples around the world in poverty, while they wallow in mountains of money that have kept themselves untouchable and uncaring for millennia.

Most of these men have claimed to be Christians, but as such have ignored, and flaunted their hypocrisy of the Golden Rule, the basic tenet of all spiritual philosophies, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” They have ignored Jesus’ tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” They have also cast aside his words to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. They don’t understand the historical context of the phrase, “to one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” They think it means to be submissive.

So, what does this say of the inner world, the soul upon which we base our good? It speaks volumes to how the world looks today and to the differences in the ways people respond or react to challenges. By in large, men still focus on “might” with those who challenge them, where women use logic, and their more sublime power of numbers to assert a greater influence. They speak from love, rather than what their money can buy.

Ultimately, this will make all the difference, because “Love conquers all.”

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

What if

what-if42818What if life actually worked for you.
What if you didn’t have to be at the affect me of the world?
What if you didn’t have to be a victim?
What if you could let go of the story that you created of victim hood?
What if there is a power in the universe that wants you to succeed?
What if everything you ever wanted is there for your asking?
What if you are the only one keeping you from having all that you desire?
What if success is simply having the willingness to allow it in your life?
What if refocusing your attention was all you need to do to set a new intention?
What if you are awesome?
What if you could allow yourself o believe that?
What if you could allow yourself to believe that you are not your story?
What if your story was just a historical reference showing you how you got to where you are, but had nothing to do with where you are going?
What if you determine your life by the way you think about it?

Life gives you what you put into it.

What if you believed this?

-rev jim

#aworldthatworksforall