Archive for April, 2012
Words received from meditation
“When you come to Me, come to me as you are. You may bring who you’ve been, and who you will be as well … so long as you discard them, to be with Me as you are. Those other selves are not worthy to be in the temple. They are unworthy for what they have done, or what they will do … but they are not you; they do not define you. I love you; I don’t care what you’ve done. I want you; I don’t care what you will do. I need you; to love me as you are, right now. Stay with me here, in this moment and for all the moments to come … and I will make you happy. I will bring you peace.”
Intoxicated bliss
A beautiful quote; one that I have found to be true:
“For thirty years I went in search of God, and when I opened my eyes at the
end of this time, I discovered that it was really He who sought for me.” – Bayazid Al-Bistami
God seeks after all of us, but will never pressure us. So great is God’s love for us that God is willing to be rejected over and over and over by the one that God loves most … you.
Try putting that level of love into the human world … it doesn’t even exist. Someone breaks your heart to the deepest levels you know … do you keep going back for more; over and over? Simply because your love for them is that pure, and strong, and deep?
That is the love of God for each of us … and when we finally see … when we finally turn to face and embrace God? Likewise the bliss that ensues is also beyond our comprehension … me we live in that intoxicated state of bliss; one with God.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Alternating Perspective – Identical Intimation
These words moved me today … I do not fit into the constructs of this particular religion (I do not particularly fit into the constructs of Christianity either, although that was my upbringing), but still I can find inspiration to grow closer to God through these words. We can all find inspiration to know God from each other, regardless of our differences. God is infinite, not confined. These words are words that God whispers to me, when we are alone in the bedroom of my mind:
“I never asked you to earn me. I want only that you should need me. Your path is not one of merit. Bring the recurring desires of your mind to me, every time they emerge. They cannot shock me, for I willed them! Bring me your confusion, your fear, your craving, your anxiety, your inability to love the world, your hesitation to serve, your jealousy, all the deficiencies that defy your spiritual disciplines.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Adele meets the Dalai Lama
I began my day meditating on an excerpt from the Dalai Lama’s book, “Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life”. Initially, my meditations took me to the past; to a time in my life where consciously thinking about death inspired me to pursue my dreams, and live life to the fullest.
Later, as I continued meditating, while doing cardio at the gym, I had further inspiration in the form of the above song, by Adele: “Don’t You Remember”. In listening to the song, I was suddenly urged to listen to the song not from my own perspective of loves lost … but from the perspective of God; singing the song to me, asking me the deep and soulful questions Adele asks in the song.
So how do these two very different sources connect and coincide?
Well, the quote that I meditated upon addressed the issue of living life to its fullest … that there isn’t time to waste. We all will die … period. There is no doubt about this. We truly do not know when or how this will take place. Death is a scary topic, for many people. However, it is in facing our fears that we become empowered. When we allow our fears to constantly make us react to them, then our eyes are taken off of the most important thing in the world … God.
In listening to Adele’s song I was certainly struck by the incredible emotion she is able to convey … but in terms of this post I was struck by the lyrics, and thinking of God singing those words to me; more specifically the lyrics at the end of the song:
“I gave you the space so you could breathe, I kept my distance so you would be free. In hope that you’d find the missing piece to bring you back to me? Why don’t you remember? Don’t you remember … the reason you left me before? When will I see you again?”
I flashed back to all the years where I was shut down … shut down to God. Every time she sang, “Don’t you remember” I thought of every single reason I had, at the time, for leaving God: my mother died at a young age, my father married an abusive woman, and I was sexually abused … all within the span of two years. This led me into my teenage years, where I became borderline suicidal. That was when I left God, when I stopped trusting God.
Still, for whatever reason, as a teenager/young adult I believed that I would die at the age of 35. I don’t know why, but I believed it completely. This belief was one of the things that ultimately drove me to live the life that I thought I wanted to live. Despite my family’s protests I pursued a career in performance. I traveled the world, and performed at some of the most well known venues in the whole world. Partially this was because I believed, and accepted, that I was going to die … in a sense I was empowered by it, rather than fearing it.
Decades went by though, and through all of them I was closed off to God. 35 came and went, and I was still alive. 🙂
I still believed in God. I still loved God … I still prayed to God. But I wouldn’t let God in … I wouldn’t trust God; I couldn’t trust anyone who would allow such awful things to happen to me. I built up gigantic fortresses of reactions, or preemptive actions, within me to try to protect that little child who had been hurt … and in the end, I only made things worse. The results of that decision traversed the realms of broken hearts, addiction, anxiety attacks, and all sorts of things that I would later regret.
THIS is how these two sources (Adele’s song and the Dalai Lama’s book) connect: there is NO time to waste living life disconnected from God. God loves each and every one of us with the intensity of the most intimate lover, with the compassion of a mother gazing at her newborn, and with the depth of a martyr who would sacrifice their life for the one they love … God loves us that way ALL the time. There is no time to waste on the meaningless trinkets and baubles of life … we are all going to die. The knowledge of that doesn’t need to scare us … we can use it to set us free.
So how do we get to that place? Well … as Adele so ardently sings, “Why don’t you remember? Baby, please remember once more.” … that’s a good place to start.
Whatever place each of us is currently in … whether connected to God intimately, or not at all, or in some sort of midway place … I am sure we each can remember that time … anyone who wants to share is welcome.
Peace and Love.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Advice on Dying
The words I will be meditating on today:
“May we realize that there is no time to waste,
Death being definite but the time of death indefinite.
What has gathered will separate, what has been accumulated will be consumed without residue,
At the end of a rising comes descent, the finality of birth is death”
an excerpt of a poem by the First Panchen Lama; as written about in the book “Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life”, by the Dalai Lama.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Feeling What You’re Feeling
A wonderful post on dealing with emotions, and living a fulfilling life WITH those emotions.
Steve Jobs’ reflection
When Einstein Became Buddha
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers … Keep looking. Don’t settle.”
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
Steve Jobs
re-posted from OAK
The enlightened rich man
Beautiful prose.
More Khalil Gibran while the The enlightened rich man is under construction..
Love is our resistance
– It may seem an odd “mash-up” to pair Martin Luther King Jr. with a modern rock song (Resistance, by Muse) … but I think the message is the same. The opening line of the chorus, “Love is our resistance” … seems to fit not only what I got from my meditation, but also Dr. King’s message at the end of this post. –
Today I meditated upon the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and I came out of my meditation inspired by the word “courage” … but the vision I have of that courage is almost more a positive brand of stubbornness, than the nobility we normally associate with such a word.
The visions that flashed through my head were of situations (real, and imagined) where the figure in those visions would harden their jaw, refuse to budge, and stand there to receive whatever may come. Now that particular picture does seem somewhat grandiose, but when you put that into real life situations it takes on a different milieu.
What if you have a friend who is going through suffering more agonizing than anything you could ever imagine? They don’t want you, or anyone else, around … they just want to be alone. How does courage look there? See, this is where it begins to look like stubbornness. If they are truly your friend, and your love for them is pure … then you will stand with them, no matter what. You will watch them scream, and cry, and even take whatever they lash out at you with because they are processing their pain … because you are the only one there to take it. You know it to be the right thing, the LOVING thing, and that is all that matters.
The same could be said about someone you see being abused, or bullied. If you stand up for them, the abuse may then be turned on you. If you help someone in need on the streets, you may have to have less for yourself at dinner that night. If you’ve lived a life of excess, but want to escape, your habits and addictions draw you unmercifully. No matter what the scenario, courage is about will … stubborn will. Sometimes the worst form of torture you have to stand up to … is what you do to yourself.
The stubbornness innate in courage will urge you to seek out what is right, what is true, what is LOVE … and trust that, no matter what hardships you endure along the way, your final ending place will be the RIGHT one. For in that space you are on the path that God would have you be on.
Before I began writing this, I searched the internet for something that seemed to fit the picture that I had in my head. Fittingly, I found ANOTHER quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that embodied all of this:
History will have to record
That the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition
Was not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people
But the appalling silence and indifference of the good.
Our generation will have to repent not
Only for the words and actions of the children of darkness
But also for the fears and apathy of the
children of light.
Martin Luther King Jr. – in a speech at the Dinkier Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia
Be strong … do not be silent … and be stubbornly courageous.
Peace and Love.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Martin Luther King Jr.
My meditational motivation for the day:
“The ultimate measure of a person is not where he or she stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he or she stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Courageous Serenity
“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,”
Here is the key … the starting point. This is the first lesson. If we cannot learn this lesson, then we cannot move on to the next steps. We can spend an entire lifetime railing against the things we can’t change.
“Courage to change the things which should be changed,”
Once we have learned to accept that which cannot be changed, then we can have the courage to change the things that should be changed. When we are fighting against the unchangeable things, we don’t have the strength or the discernment to make the proper changes.
“and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”
I find it interesting that the wisdom aspect comes last … it seems to me that the wisdom to distinguish really is the second task in this chain of events. We accept that which cannot be changed … in the peace that comes from acceptance we gain Wisdom … and in that wisdom we see what needs to be changed. Since we have already accepted that which cannot be changed, we have no problem setting about the task of making change … and have the wisdom to make the proper change.
It all hinges on acceptance though … that truly is the most difficult part. Accepting our flaws, accepting our fears, accepting our circumstances as they are. We can’t move along the progression though until we learn acceptance.
But how do we accept the worst nightmare that haunts our dreams … the worst end that could ever be? How is it possible?? Well, that isn’t for me to say … it is different for each of us. The answer to that, however, is found in seeking God … and nowhere else. If we don’t seek God, we will never know the answer … and if we do seek God? God will reveal the path to serenity that brings about acceptance, and how to pass through to the place of courageous change.
This is where the journey begins.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Serenity Now (cont.)
In doing some research, I found the remainder of the text for that prayer … and I actually find the rest of it to be even more powerful than the more well known exerpt:
-
- Living one day at a time,
- Enjoying one moment at a time,
- Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
- Taking, as Jesus did,
- This sinful world as it is,
- Not as I would have it,
- Trusting that You will make all things right,
- If I surrender to Your will,
- So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
- And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
-
- Amen.
- -Reinhold Niebuhr-
Serenity Now
It’s curious … this prayer has become so synonymous with overcoming addiction, that sometimes I feel the full import of the message gets a little lost. Sometimes a mantra can become almost trite sounding … but there is power in this particular prayer. These are the words I will be contemplating in meditation today:
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Hopes/Fears
In my meditation time today (reflecting on the words of Helen Keller from my prior post) I was surprised by where I ended up. This frequently happens though, if one allows themselves to follow the proverbial “rabbit down the rabbit hole”. I ended up with a visual of Tarot cards … specifically at the Hopes/Fears placement for a card.
I realized that often times, in terms of accepting things in life, we tend to focus on our fears. The fears and anxiety can seem so insurmountable at times, that we often forget about the hopes. In a lot of ways it is every bit as difficult to embrace the totality of our hopes and dreams, as it is to overcome what troubles us.
In my meditation I found myself visualizing that which I wanted. I kept thinking to myself, “Okay, enough of that frivolity, get back to the real business at hand here.” After a few times of this happening, I realized that this was a subtle prompting … a prompting to stop fighting my desires. It had never occurred to me that this is what I was doing … I knew they were my desires; my utmost desires, so I didn’t feel that I needed to give them meditative time. I was wrong.
It is not enough to overcome our fears … we must embrace our desires as well. Even if they scare us. Often times our greatest desires coincide with the most treacherous of paths … so while we might admire them from a distance, and fix them in our minds as something we want. We don’t actually do the work of making them reality.
Why is this? Well, if you truly give everything you have to that which you desire most … and fail, or get rejected … that will ultimately be FAR more painful than the majority of trials we try to overcome.
However, our dreams. passions, and greatest desires were given to us for a reason. We were created for those things. Those are most likely the areas that God will be able to use us most powerfully … whether it is Love, or Art, Philosophy, or Business, or whatever it may be … who is to say what God will do when we are open to guidance and moving in the direction of our greatest desires?
So embrace that which you desire most … even in the face of failure, rejection, or trial. Do not give up the flame that is in your heart. Even in the turbulent times when we must let go of the tangible manifestation; that flame of passion needs to blaze. God wants to use our passions for the things, or people, that we love … however the situation resolves.
(special thanks to Rev Dani Lynn, whose post on a quote from Marianne Williamson, which I re-blogged under the title “Our Deepest Fear”, also factored in to my meditation time today)
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Helen Keller
The words upon which I will be meditating today:
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” – Helen Keller
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
The prophet
A very good reminder … to love deeply, is also to know great pain; the two are intertwined.
Our Deepest Fear
A wonderful reminder … let go of the limitations we impose upon ourselves; be open and allow God to work through you … no matter how much doubt or fear resides within.
http://spiritualmysticism.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/our-deepest-fear/
re-blogged from Rev Dani Lynn
The Companion of Wisdom
A wonderful reminder, and a mantra that will be tumbling about my head throughout the day :-).
re-blogged from istopforsuffering
Lifetime regression
In meditating on acceptance throughout the day, I was taken to a point of contemplating the True Self. My definition for the True Self is this: who you are when you are not reacting to something other than God; whether internal, or external. By this I mean that most often we are reacting to either a tangible event in our lives, or our fears that have accumulated over a lifetime of experiencing such events … events that we are hoping to avoid.
Over time these reactions can become an extremely complex web of reactions that come in many forms: white lies and subtle manipulations, at first. As we go further down the road, we see that we keep getting what we want and it continues to evolve. The problem is … that person is not our True Self. You can’t even find the True Self in the midst of all that chaos.
When we truly get to a point of acceptance (something which many wrongly construe as resignation) we allow all of these “chains” that bind us to dissolve, and disappear. What we are left with is the True Self. When you can accept where you are, or what has happened, or what might happen, or might not … then you can breathe deeply and realize that you are free. Now, with a clear head, you can move forward as your True Self … that person who has been hiding behind all these layers of reactions that were intended to protect, but ultimately only suffocate. That person who is following Spiritual guidance, as opposed to man-made constructs.
I went back in time; wondering if there was ever a another point in my life where that True Self was evident. Certainly not in my memory. As a child we are certainly trained and groomed in certain ways, and these all have their affect. So I went further, back to an infant. Many believe that “mankind is fallen”, even from birth. I just don’t believe (in having looked into the eyes of many babies) that this is true. That is our soul as the True Self.
What happens though is that we are quickly trained that if we cry, we get what we want. We learn that by taking our fate into our own hands, we can make the world do what we want. That trait is encouraged and empowered throughout our lives. The more aggressive we are, the better. We can make the world what we want it to be … but most often that does not concur with what God wants us to be. When was a child rewarded for sitting in a room, meditating, and being with God? In certain cultures that may be the case, but not in American culture, for the most part.
So the search for the True Self is really about undoing everything that has been trained and ingrained. Some might think this borders on Anarchy, or at least Existentialism. While I understand this reaction, my ultimate point is that when our focus is on God … we can trust God to guide us. I am not saying that there should be no rules when I say that we need to go through a lifetime regression. I am saying that we should spend our time listening to God for such guidance … instead of relying on man-made crutches. If God REALLY is there … why do we need anyone else to tell us what God is saying?
We should let be letting go of all of the negative reactions we have allowed, accepting where we are, and then moving forward in life as that True Self … not reacting, but ACTING as we are guided by God.
I realize that many people get nervous about something so unstructured … but I believe that, when God is the basis of any action, LOVE will be the result. It is a curious musing that I found myself on today … I welcome any and all to agree, disagree, or expound.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Happiness on condition
The meat of my meditations today:
“I accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don’t set any condition.” – Artur Rubinstein
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Religion4All 