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though i have profound remorse that it was through others' pain, i am uspeakably GRATEFUL for all that i have learned.
Almost 20 Years Later [6:25 PM]
when the student is ready, the teacher will appear
Almost 20 Years Later [6:02 PM]
bomb them with butter
Almost 20 Years Later [6:01 PM]
The Holy Now
There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time -- or even knew selflessness or courage or literature -- but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less.
There is no less holiness at this time -- as you are reading this -- than there was the day the Red Sea parted, or that day in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as Ezekiel was a captive by the river Chebar, when the heavens opened and he saw visions of God. There is no whit less enlightenment under the tree by your street than there was under the Buddha's bo tree. There is no whit less might in heaven or on earth than there was the day Jesus said "Maid, arise" to the centurion's daughter, or the day Peter walked on water, or the night Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse. In any instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger. In any instant the bush may flare, your feet may rise, or you may see a bunch of souls in a tree. In any instant you may avail yourself of the power to love your enemies; to accept failure, slander, or the grief of loss; or to endure torture.
Purity's time is always now. Purity is no social phenomenon, a cultural thing whose time we have missed, whose generations are dead, so we can only buy Shaker furniture. "Each and every day the Divine Voice issues from Sinai," says the Talmud. Of eternal fulfillment, Tillich said, "If it is not seen in the present, it cannot be seen at all."
--Annie Dillard, For the Time Being
Almost 20 Years Later [9:31 PM]
we are all lead to the truth for which we are ready.
Almost 20 Years Later [12:20 AM]
war is the highest form
of the real estate business
Almost 20 Years Later [12:13 AM]
whatever blesses one
blesses all, spirit,
not matter, being the
source of supply.
Almost 20 Years Later [12:03 AM]
to say yes to one instant, is to say yes to all of existence.
Almost 20 Years Later [11:07 PM]
9/19
~ In the end, what we all want to know about is each other.
~ It's as if we somehow know that if we can learn more about one another, we can learn more about ourselves. And the yearning to know more about ourselves -- about Who We Really Are -- is the deepest yearning of all.
~ We're constantly trying to get into each other's skin.
~ In each other we will find our Selves.
~ We know at the highest level that We Are All One. It is this supreme awareness that pulls us toward each other, and it is the ignoring of it that creates the deepest loneliness of the human heart, and every misery of the human condition.
~ Every sadness of the human heart, every indignity of the human condition, every tragedy of the human experience, can be attributed to one human decision--the decision to withdraw from each other. The decision to ignore our supreme awareness. The decision to call the natural attraction that we have for each other "bad," and our Oneness a fiction.
~ We have denied our True Selves. And it is from this self-denial that all of our negativity has sprung.
~ Even as we seek at the cellular level to experience ou Oneness, we insist at the mental level on denying it. Thus, our thoughts about life and how it is are out of alignment with our deepest inner knowing. In essence, we are acting every day against our instincts. And this has led to our present madness, in which we persist in acting out the insanity of separateness, all the while yearning to know the joy of Oneness once again.
~ There's always a part of me that can't believe the best and is expecting to hear the worst.
~ Sometimes it is only as I am writing that I come to know exactly how I feel.
~ God wants most of all to be used. And that's what we want as well. We want a friendship with God. One that's functional and useful.
~ We begin our interactions with each other with a conversation. If that goes well, we form a friendship. And if that goes well, we experience a sense of Oneness--communion--with the other person. It is exactly the same way with God.
First, we have conversation.
Each of us experiences our conversations with God in our own way--and in different ways at different times. It will always be a two-way conversation. It could be a conversation "in your head," or on paper, or with God's response taking just a little more time, and reaching you in the form of the the next song that you hear, or the next movie you see, or the next lecture you attend, or the next magazine article your read, or in the chance utterance of a friend whom you "just happen" to run into on the street.
Once we have become clear that we are always in conversation with God, then we can move into friendship. Ultimately, we will experience communion.
~ We and God are One right now. We simply don't know it. We do not choose to experience it--any more than we know or choose to experience out Oneness with each other.
~ Destroy the illusion of separation.
~ Dancing with the energy of God.
~ Whenever we write lyrically, speak poetically, smile lovingly, sing a song or dance a dance, God has to show up. God is always there, in our lives, All Ways. But we become much more conscious of God's presence when we do these things; when we smile or love or sing or dance or write from our hearts. This is the highest version of Who God Is, and when we are expressing these qualities, we are expressing God. Literally, we are EXPRESSING God. That is, pushing God out.
We are taking God from the inside of us, where God always resides, and showing God on the outside of us. And so, God seems to be "just showing up." The truth is, God is always there, and we are only in these moments aware of God.
~ Don't retreat just because God has shown up. That's the problem with so many people. God shows up and they think they have to get smaller. They think they have to humble themselves.
~ God has not come to humble us, but to exalt us.
~ When we are exalted, so, too, is God. And when we are humbled, so, too, is God. There is only One of Us. God and We are One.
~ As people get to know you, they get to know themselves. They'll see themselves in you, and if they see that in you is God, then they'll see that God is in them as well. And this will be a great gift.
~ I thought I would overflow from the inside out... with love.
~ God never commands anyone to do anything.
~ Who says that money is bad?
~ Live as is money doesn't matter. Spend it freely and give it away easily and share it generously and act, actually, just that way--as if it doesn't matter.
~ You can't lose money. You can only use it. Money that is used is not lost. Somebody has it! It hasn't disappeared. The question is, who has it? If it went to people who sold you things, or did things for you that you wanted done, how did you "lose" anything? And if it goes to doing good works, or meeting the needs of others, where is the loss in that?
~ The only way to have the experience of "having" anything is to give it away. Then--and only then-- can you know that you have it.
~ God told us that money was not the root of all evil, though we might decide that the misuse of it was. God told us that life was created for us to enjoy, and that it was okay to do that. More than okay. God told us that money was no different from anything else in life--that it was all God's energy. God told us that there was nowhere that God is not, that God is expressed in, around, and through everything--indeed, that God is everything, the All in All--and that includes money.
God told us that all our lives we have held an inaccurate view about money. That we'd made it wrong. Dirty. Unworthy. And that when we did this we were making God wrong, dirty, and unworthy, because money is part of Who God Is.
God told us that we have created an interesting life philosophy in which money is "bad" and love is "good." Therefore, the more loving or important to society a thing is, the less money we should make from it.
In this, God told us, half the world has it backwards.
We pay our strippers and our first-basemen unfathomable sums to do what they do, while our scientists who search for a cure for AIDS, and the teachers in the classroom with our children, and the ministers and rabbis and priests who look after our souls, live on bread and water.
God told us that this created an upside-down world in which the things we value most receive the least reward. And God told us that not only does this not work (if we really want to create the world that we say we want to create), but it is not even necessary, because it is not God's will at all.
God told us that God's will is that every human being live luxuriously, and that there is nothing wrong with luxury, and that our only problem here on Earth is that we haven't yet learned how to share it--even after all these thousands of years.
God also make it clear that we don't teach the world anything about the real truth of money by shunning it. We only encourage the world's dysfunction by modeling that dysfunction ourselves.
God said it would be a far more powerful teaching if we joyfully accepted money--and, indeed, all good things in life, and joyfully shared these things as well.
~ We've opened a Pandora's box.
~ All of life is people doing good things for another. That's all any of us are doing here. We're all just offering the world our "goods." When the world agrees that what we offer is worthwhile--whether it's fixing plumbing, baking bread, healing others, or teaching truth--the world says it is "value-able," that is, able to have value. And if we give a thing value by offering in exchange something of value which is ours, we not only receive the value we give--we make that thing at once more valuable for others to have as well.
And so, others are drawn to it, for people will always seek to bring value to their lives. Our system of commerce allows us to determine what is valuable and what is not.
It's not a perfect system, nor are our decisions about what to value. But this imperfect system is what we've got now. We should work within the system to change it.
~ We've set up a construction in which we ask other people to value that for which we would take nothing of value. How can we expect others to value what we do not? And what value do we place on ourselves if we believe we must suffer for others to see our value?
~To empower the dreams of humanity with the living of our own dreams. What a magnificent idea!
~ Our lives, and our reality around money--and all good things--will change when we change. They will change for us when we change our mind about them.
Almost 20 Years Later [12:59 AM]
9/16
~ Allah loves us without condition.
~ Jehovah will select ALL of us to be with Him when the days of glory are at hand.
~ Our blind faith has led us down a blind alley.
Almost 20 Years Later [11:01 PM]
9/16
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
~Marcus Aurelius
Almost 20 Years Later [10:41 PM]
9/16
This is from Marianne Williamson's book "Return to Love" :
"our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Almost 20 Years Later [10:20 PM]
9/15
~ When God tells you He's going to do something, you can count on it. God always gets Her way.
~ It turns out that when people say they talk to God every day, they're called devout, but when people say that God talks to them every day, they're called crazy.
~ I have no need for anyone to believe anything that I say.
~ Listen to your own hearts, find your own truths, seek your own counsel, access your own wisdom, and if you wish, have your own conversations with God.
~ Wonder, explore, search for your own truth.
~ By planting God's wisdom firmly into our consciousness, we AFFECT our consciousness. We awaken it. We elevate it. And as we do, we understand more; we come to remember more of Who We Really Are, and we begin to demostrate that.
~ All of us have a friendship with God, whether we know it or not.
~ We are on a journey here.
~ Ask plenty of questions, but also, provide plenty of answers.
~ Your life will be changed.
~ Speak your word and live your life with a new authority.
~ No longer be a seeker, but a bringer, of the Light.
~ What you bring is what you will find.
~ We can follow God, or we can lead others TO God. The first course will change us, the second course will change the world.
Almost 20 Years Later [2:12 PM]
When clarity is meant to come, it will.
Almost 20 Years Later [2:30 PM]
Worrying about whether I am doing it right blocks the process.
Almost 20 Years Later [2:29 PM]