Category: Love

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Christ Consciousness

greater-is-he

What is the Christ Consciousness? What does it mean to me? What can it mean for you in your life?

To me it is God Consciousness. It is the recognition of God in and as me, and in and as my life. It is the personification of living the teachings of Jesus. It is about me, living my life as the incarnation of the Divine each of us can be, while on this plane. It is about me doing good, and seeing good in everything I do. It is about not judging others, and knowing everyone is trying to do the best they can with what they have. It is about me taking the high road when confronted with choices or challenges. It is about loving my neighbor and about turning the other cheek. It’s about living our humanity AND our divinity. It’s about following my heart, not necessarily my head. And it is about living my life in love, in peace, and in joy! It is about Loving myself first, and enough, that I can love others. It is about knowing that , just as the lilies of the fields hall not want or need anything, neither do I, because God, or Spirit, or Source Energy, or whatever you choose to call it, provides me with all my needs. It is about being open to accepting all the good that is being sent in my direction and accepting it graciously and with a grateful heart.

And ultimately, it is about doing all of this without even having to think about. It’s about this just being me.

~rev jim

#spirit-edu.com
#aworldthatworks

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Let go of the old ideas that don’t Serve

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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
#spirit-edu.com
#aworldthatworks

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What is Salvation?

993150_30225139“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
#spirit-edu.com  #aworldthatworks

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Who were you intended to be?

merton-heroic-humilityWhat 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

#aworldthatworks
#spirit-edu.com

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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”
Online Spiritual Education
#peace   #aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is an authorized CSL Virtual Education Provider

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Practicing the Presence

1957904We 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
#peace   #aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

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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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In the stillness the Divine enters

Christian dove“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