Archive for Meditative Writings
Every person is an artist
Every person is an artist casting about for their muse.
Each one of us has a vision that we feel passionate about and are trying to bring into alignment and fulfillment. Whether that is a happy relationship with a blond/brunette who is sexually pleasing to our inner Director’s creative vision (which is largely a result of our imprinting from the past) or whether that is standing at the proverbial mountaintop, head high and chest greeting the sky, having accomplished the goal we set out to accomplish.
We are ALL writing a story and thus we are ALL artists. The problem is that we don’t own that we are artists and we don’t acknowledge that everyone else around us is as well. We see the creative yarn we are personally spinning as a task to accomplish or just life as it is … “reality”.
When you own that you are the Author and YOU are creating what you want then you can begin to see that is true for everyone else as well. Then there is no actual rejection of you (let me say that again, there is no actual rejection of you), not really … because it’s not about you.
Somebody else has a creative vision (just like you) and their inner artist is trying to bring it into reality. You simple were not what exactly fit their personal creative vision.
When I look at life and others this way I find it incredibly freeing. Why?
Well, I think of all the great creative ventures I have been passionate about: a show I have written, a lover uncovered, a performance sublime. In each of these occasions there were people who didn’t fit with my creative vision. Do I remember them? Do I hold onto thoughts of, “Ew, I hated that person!”?
No!
Why? Because there was nothing personal about it. They weren’t offending me, they simply didn’t match the scene my inner artist was painting.
There was once a dark haired, Persian boy who was bizarrely obsessed with me on the dance floor of a club in Germany. There was no rancor toward him on my part because he didn’t happen to match what stirs my inner artistic vision for myself. Yet I wonder if he took it as rejection of him … when it wasn’t rejection of him at all. Not personally, not from me. I remember him as charming and there is no negativity there at all.
How many times has that been true of me, when I have taken it as rejection?
I wondered to myself, after these realizations, do I actually want to be the fulfillment of every single person’s creative aspirations? God no, ugh, that sounds exhausting!
So why then do I take it as rejection if I don’t happen to fit another’s creative vision?
Simply let it go and acknowledge the truth … that they are searching for something from their inner artist’s well, and good for them! Tip your hat to a fellow artist on a quest and wish them well on their artistic journey … that apparently has nothing to do with you, and that is just fine.
Hot Tub Time Machine
You might think this a silly metaphor for inner work and I agree, it sort of makes me chuckle. 😉
Nevertheless, floating in a hot tub is where Epiphany, goddess of light bulbs, found me amidst my meditations. So I’m utilizing a little levity with a profound subject.
This epiphany came as I was engaging in a water emersion meditation, as employed in the latter half of Michael Brown’s 10 week Presence Process program. The intent is to immerse yourself in water and FEEL everything unconditionally. Don’t shy away from uncomfortable emotions, just be with them.
For some reason, probably habit, I had turned on the jets. As I allowed my body to float the jets started slowly spinning me until at one point a jet very nearly blasted into my ear. Annoyed, I contorted my body and buoyed myself back to where I had started.
Of course, the same thing happened again.
But I didn’t WANT to change. I wanted to be able to float freely and enjoy that feeling, not work to impose my will upon what was “supposed” to be a free flowing session.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal. I put my heels on the bench across from me and, voila, I was able to still float. Once I finished my meditation I could actually use my feet anchors to position me just so, in front of that same jet to get a nice massage.
It occurred to me that this is often how life is. If we don’t have our proverbial anchors we can be buffetted about like a ship in a storm … or a meditating floater in a jacuzzi.
In my twenties I rebelled and didn’t want anyone telling me what I HAD to do. I’ve often thought of myself during that time as someone flailing about, searching for anything to give me answers from outside of myself. Friends, drugs, sex, music, performance, etc. That was me just getting spun around by the proverbial jets of life.
When I was introduced to energy work and meditation SUDDENLY there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t have to be out of control, I could actually give MYSELF that which I was so desperately searching for.
An even deeper level of that comes when you consciously choose for yourself what you will stand for. When you declare yourself a stand for something, that is you putting an anchor down so that you are not buffetted about by the ever-changing unknown of the world around.
Stands can be tricky though. Many people stand for something, and wind up hurting a LOT of people because of what they have chosen to stand for. Their stand though has them feel like they are on solid ground, that they are right.
Usually this happens when people get their stands from outside of themselves.
Discovering a stand that is true to who you really are? Now that requires some work and diligence. It’s easy to take someone else’s stand and make it your own (a church, a mentor, a boss, etc.), but to come up with your own stand that will have you be at peace and even content whatever comes your way? That takes some deep soul diving.
For instance, I recently have declared myself a stand for my conscious way of being to be a support for anyone who, like me, has experienced abuse as a child.
Prior to that I declared myself a stand that by me staying in the present, every moment, I allow God to flow through me and that gives others the opportunity to discover their own unique spiritual connection and Guidance.
Those are stands that are deeply important to me and they also are stands that I can take with me into every arena of life. You want to discover what has deep meaning for you and then you can begin to formulate that stand.
When you can actually put your soul’s stand into words and embody it … then you will have something that sees you through, and you’ll never lose it. That’s pretty powerful.
So here’s to thought provoking hot tubbing! Have a blessed day.
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
Everybody can be great
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ 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.
photo by: Annie Spratt
Talk to yourself
“Talk to yourself once in a day, otherwise, you may miss meeting an excellent person in this world.”
– Swami Vivekananda
~~~
Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection.
– Amit Ray
~~~
Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.
– Pema Chödrön
~~~
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
- Photo credit Today.com
Your thoughts are your prayers
I had the pleasure of going to the Center for Spiritual Living this past Sunday in Redondo Beach. I go to many different places of worship for many different religions. I was definitely filled with Love by this beautiful congregration.
A message that has stuck with me all week was fairly simple, from the time of worship. The message was incredibly powerful and intellectual and I have been reflecting on that as well … however, the lasting inspration came in one of the songs, the words were “Your thoughts are your prayers … be careful what you’re saying.”
This really rocked me to my core because I have alway looked at prayer as a conscious thing … but to consider that whatever I allow myself to think, that that is a prayer? That was surprising for me to consider. I’ve appreciated meditating on this and have been singing the song to myself all week whenever I get into my negative default mentality of judging myself or fear of what might be … I do not want fear and judgment to be my prayers!!!
In light of the inspiration I thought I would include some other inspiration quotes from Ernest Holmes, since I enjoyed a service from on of his spiritual centers so much.
“Love opens the way before me and makes it perfect, straight, and glad. Love forgives everything unlike itself; it purifies everything. Love converts everything that seems commonplace into that which is wonderful. Love converts weakness into strength, fear into faith. Love”
“If the philosophy of Christianity were lived, wars would cease, unhappiness would cease, economic problems would be solved, poverty would be wiped from the face of the earth, and man’s inhumanity to man would be transmuted into a spirit of mutual helpfulness.”
― Ernest Holmes
~~~~~~~
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
What God Wants
So much weight seems to be put on what God wants … or at least people speculating on what God wants.
Whole wars have been fought, and still are being fought, because one group thinks God wants one thing and the other group thinks God wants something else.
We see it today in American politics, and elsewhere in the world, on issues like sexuality, poverty, marriage and so many more issues. Families get broken apart, for those impacted suicide becomes something to ponder, people close their hearts to God because they feel rejected and judged.
Why?
I will give you my belief on what it is that God wants. Hopefully I will not come across as arrogant or presumptious in doing so. It is generally anathema to me to claim that I know what God wants, but I believe this one statement IS actually what God wants.
God wants to be in relationship with you.
That’s it … all these groups who try and lable people and force them to fit in or else be ostracized. That is not what God wants.
If you are gay, God wants to be in relationship with you.
If you committed adultery and have been divorced, God wants to be in relationship with you.
Whatever it is that is supposedly “your sin” based on what this group or that group tells you … it doesn’t matter, God wants to be in relationship with you.
None of us are ever going to be perfect … just because we aren’t perfect doesn’t mean we are supposed to be out of relationship with God. God gave us FREE WILL … why would God give us free will if the minute we exercised it we are condemned or kicked out???
That literally makes no sense at all … it ceases to be free will. But no one will tell you that.
You don’t even have to go to church in order to be in relationship with God (gasp, sacrilege).
Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you’ve done, whatever religion you are a part of … it’s simple, God wants to be connected to you, to be in relationship with you.
That happens when your heart is open … when we get judged, condemned, ostracized, persecuted or beaten down what happens? We close our hearts … and then we are not in relationship with God in that state.
So why would religions want to force people to close their hearts by engaging in those aforementioned behaviors? Is their priority to get you to fit into their “group” … or is their priority that you be in relationship with God?
If it is the former rather than the latter … you might think about looking for a different “group” to be a part of.
Or better yet … just open your heart and connect with God on your own. Then if you want to share that with others, you can find a group that is supportive of you being connected to and loving God.
Because I gaurantee you … I feel confident in saying that the one thing I KNOW God wants … is to be loving you, and having your love in return.
~~~~~~~
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
Your Mind Is Complicit
My words to meditate upon today on how we truly are the authors of our own reality, whatever that reality may be. If that reality is shame, or fear, or even hatred … we each personally have authored that. We become our own worst torturers … don’t allow the actions of others to turn you into an abuser yourself. Don’t give them that power … instead be the author of love, compassion and forgiveness.
Shift … and you will find happiness.
~~~
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
– Nelson Mandela
~~~
“If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”
– Epictetus
~~~
“Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.”
– Bertrand Russell
~~~~~~~
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
- art by Pat Erickson
Source: Your Mind Is Complicit
I LOVE YOU
Here is a poem I wrote while struggling and grappling with issues that came up from, well … living life!
Interestingly, this poem has changed my WHOLE way of meditating each day. Now, after doing my breathing, stretching, grounding, connecting to God and establishing boundaries … I spend time allowing whatever is causing me stress or anxiety in my life to come up. I feel it to its fullest … and then I simply say “I love you.” … just as in this poem.
I love you.
~
Rising swells
all flecked with fury.
~
I love you.
~
Judgement’s eyes
cast weight on the scales
of my heart.
~
I love you.
~
Friend or foe;
uncertainty’s advance.
~
I love you.
~
Ancient wounds prodded
provoking past mistakes.
~
I love you.
~
Dreamscape carnage
littered with pieces and parts
of who I was
and what I’ve done.
~
I love you.
~
A shuttered heart
defending inner sanctum.
~
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
~
Namaste.
~~~~~~~
- poem written by the author of Religion4All
~~~~~~~
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
Source: I LOVE YOU
The Most Progressive
My words to meditate upon today:
~~~~~~~
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
– C. S. Lewis
~~~~~~~
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain … accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
– Kahlil Gibran
~~~~~~~
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
– Voltaire
~~~~~~~
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
- art by Luis Velasquez
A lesson in ripples …
A student came to his teacher very perplexed. Life had become unbearable and the only person he knew who could help him was his teacher.
His teacher received him warmly and listened as her pupil poured his heart out, tears just behind his words but not yet managing to fall.
When his words could no longer adequately describe his anguish, and the room was silent, the teacher rose and motioned for her student to follow.
They walked outside where raindrops were lightly sprinkling all around and the teacher sat on a bench near a pool. The student sat next to her and watched as she simply stared at the pool. He grew restless.
Finally his teacher said, “Do you see the droplets of water falling on the surface of the pool?”
“Sure, of course I do.” the student answered quickly.
“Good,” his teacher said, “now see if you can guess where you think the next droplet of water will fall.”
The student studied the pool for a few seconds and said impatiently, “I cannot.”
“Okay. Now I want you to focus with ALL your might, use the techniques I have taught you, and try to stop the droplets from hitting the water.”
The student was stunned at this daunting request, but did not want to disappoint his teacher so he did as he was instructed. He went through all of the techniques his teacher had taught him and when he was ready he focused his will with every ounce of concentration he could must. He created a sphere of energy and moved it over the pool to prevent the droplets from landing.
Still the water droplets landed on the surface of the pool.
The student’s shoulders slumped, “I cannot do it.” he said softly. His failure only adding to his woes.
“That is correct.” his teacher acknowledged, “No matter how hard you try you cannot stop the water from falling into this pool. Such are the events that take place in this world. Just as you cannot predict where the next droplet will fall, so too can you not predict the next event that will occur in your life.”
The student was relieved that he had not failed this test, but still seemed perplexed.
“You are looking at life as if you can predict what will happen and control it … but you cannot. To try and do so takes a tremendous amount of energy and concentration … and you will never be successful.”
His teacher paused and looked out over the pond again, “Now try and look at the surface and appreciate the beauty that each droplet of water creates.”
The student did so and after a few minutes a sigh escaped his lips. The ripples of each droplet intersected with each other over and over creating a hypnotically beautiful piece of evolving art.
“The difference between how you perceive the droplets of water hitting the pool before and now is all a matter of perspective. So it is with life … change your perspective on how you view the events unfolding around you and they will no longer trouble you. If you can surrender to the flow of Life without fighting or trying to impose your will on it, then you will be on the path to contentment and happiness and even possibly … enlightenment.”
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
Greatest Fears or Golden Opportunities
This seemed like a much needed re-post given the times we are living in. I know I found it a helpful reminder:
Sometimes it takes the biggest challenges in life to force us to evolve into the Beings we are meant to become.
When we’re down and out; feelings like we are going to collapse from exhaustion already. Suddenly something else comes from out of the blue … something so dire that it jolts us out of our weariness. It pushes us beyond what we are capable and before we know it … we’re there … we’ve arrived at where God intended us to be all along.
However, we MUST vigilantly be open … vulnerable … in order to perceive God’s guidance. In my meditations today (on my prior post, “Willful Exposure“) I reflect on what it is necessary to be vulnerable. Sometimes we master one aspect of it; say we’ve learned how to not cling to the things we desire … we’ve learned how to let go. Then something else comes along and shows us yet another facet that we have been missing all along; someone berates you and you harden yourself … you push away.
In truth, the state of vulnerability requires a sort of spiritual stasis … one in which we are neither clinging, or pushing away. We don’t react to the inner longings that push us to grasp for what our heart aches for. Nor do we react to the machinations of the outer world … which is full of people desperately trying to cling to what they want.
When you are calm, and still … the cords of reaction that bind you simply slip away and you are then free to ACT. You are free to make decisions based on where you feel God is leading you. When you are in that place you are actually able to hear, and sense, where God is leading you. You also see how completely lost you were for so long before.
But … in order to arrive at that place … you have to be vulnerable in the face of your greatest fears. If you let the opportunity pass you by … you will just be lost in the never ending maze that is Reaction.
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
Creativity is the training ground for miracles
Have you ever thought that there must be some sort of greater purpose to your creative surges? You find something that you love, and when you give yourself over to it your spirit soars! You could spend days, weeks, months doing it and never tire of it. The stereotype attached to this is that it must be something artistic … that’s true creativity.
That’s simply not true. We can find creativity within us during just about ANY activity. If your calling is to be the world’s best mom, or dad; you can find amazing and incredible things to do with your kids, and creative ways to show them your love. If your calling is to be a construction worker; you can find creative ways to make yourself the best and most trusted in your trade. Basically … if you LOVE something, or someone … there’s probably a reason for it. Whatever it is … that is part of the unique Creation that is you.
Here’s the thing about creativity though … just because you have it, doesn’t mean that it is necessarily being put to good, or constructive, use. Here’s an example: when I was a suicidally depressed teenager – my teacher remarked that every time she read my poetry she cried. I remember I wrote one piece in particular that reduced her to a weeping mess … it was about a deer that had been shot through the lungs by an arrow and was dying a slow death. Yeah … REAL uplifting.
What Creativity DOES do is show us the unique gifts that God has blessed us with. When we are connected with God and unimpeded by the past, worries of the future, and all of the chaos that goes on in the world of today … when we are just CONNECTED to God’s Love. That is when our Creativity can then take on the form of a Miracle.
I enjoy expressing myself through writing (as well as many other forms: cooking, singing, composing music, etc.). You could say that since I gave my life to the arts, I have become a creative being … and that would be true. However, the things that I produced as that creative Being were a direct reflection of who my True Self was at the time … at the time when my True Self was repressed and shackled to an Inner World of fears, rejection, bitterness, anger, and many other things … that was how I expressed myself creatively … those awful things within me were expressed inherently in what I Creatively did in some way, shape, or form.
THAT is why I say that Creativity is the training ground for Miracles. When you have gone within and cleared out all of those ancient blockages. When you have opened yourself to allow the Love of your Creator to wash all of that crap out? Then your Creativity becomes what God always intended it to become all along … a conduit for God to work through you.
Think about it … when you see a painting, or hear a song, that completely takes your breath away … or makes you cry even … there is something MORE to it than just the brush strokes, or vocal gymnastics of the singer. There is a SOUL that is expressed. THAT is a miracle. Raising the most beautiful children in the world, because you allowed God to shape them instead of imposing your own flaws upon them … THAT is a miracle.
Guess what?? LOVING yourself, even though you can find a million ways to loathe yourself … THAT is a Miracle … it is the first Miracle in the line of many more Miracles to come. Learn to Love yourself … you are beautiful, just as you are. God thinks so … and I think so too (because I choose to be a mirror of God’s Love to the world).
God wants you to accept how wondrously you are Loved, and embrace that View as how you see yourself. Then your TRUE Creative Self will be unleashed upon the world … for whatever God intends.
Peace and Love.
——-
* this posting came from meditating on my prior post, “Portal of Healing and Creativity“. Picture is from 10000 Victories Kung Fu School.
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
I LOVE YOU
Here is a poem I wrote while struggling and grappling with issues that came up from, well … living life! Interestingly, this poem has changed my WHOLE way of meditating each day. Now, after doing my breathing, stretching, grounding, connecting to God and establishing boundaries … I spend time allowing whatever is causing me stress or anxiety in my life to come up. I feel it to its fullest … and then I simply say “I love you.” … just as in this poem.
I love you.
~
Rising swells
all flecked with fury.
~
I love you.
~
Judgement’s eyes
cast weight on the scales
of my heart.
~
I love you.
~
Friend or foe;
uncertainty’s advance.
~
I love you.
~
Ancient wounds prodded
provoking past mistakes.
~
I love you.
~
Dreamscape carnage
littered with pieces and parts
of who I was
and what I’ve done.
~
I love you.
~
A shuttered heart
defending inner sanctum.
~
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
~
Namaste.
~~~~~~~
- poem written by the author of Religion4All, art by Amanda Sage.
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
Source: I LOVE YOU
The Untethered Soul (meaningful excerpts) …
A wonderful looking back on a transformative period in my life!
~~~
2012
During the past year I have had the good fortune to read an extremely meaningful and fortuitous book, “The Untethered Soul” … fortuitous in terms of the timing of when and how it came to me. It is one of a handful of books, over the course of my life, to have drastically altered me. Lately I’ve been re-reading it, while doing cardio at the gym, by opening it up to whatever page wants to present itself to me. I found the following excerpts to be powerful (yet again):
“Life is surrounding you with people and situations that stimulate your growth. You don’t have to decide who’s right or wrong. You don’t have to worry about other people’s issues. You only have to be willing to open your heart in the face of anything and everything, and permit the purification process to take place …
The stuff that holds you down periodically rears its head. When it does, let it go. You simply permit the pain to come up into your heart and pass through. If you do that, it will pass. If you are sincerely seeking truth, you’ll let go every time. This is the beginning and end of the entire path – you surrender yourself to the process of emptying yourself …
Getting involved in the darkness does not dispel darkness; it feeds it. Don’t even turn toward it. If you see disturbed energies within you, it’s okay. Don’t think that you don’t have blockages left to release. Just sit in the seat of awareness and never leave. No matter what goes on below you, open your heart and let it go. Your heart will become purified, and you will never know another fall …
Always let go as soon as you’re aware that you didn’t. Don’t waste your time; use the energy to go up. You are a great being who has been given a tremendous opportunity to explore beyond yourself …
So don’t fall. Let go. No matter what it is, let it go …
That which is holding you down can become a powerful force that raises you up.
You just have to be willing to take the ascent.”
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
Source: The Untethered Soul (meaningful excerpts) …
Garden of You
Always struggling,
manipulating,
brainstorming,
conniving.
Always the energy
sent into the ethos
after the goal in mind
from my point of view.
I acknowledge it now;
I let go my selfish yearnings.
I replant my best intentions
in the Garden of You.
In meditating on my prior post, “Reflections of your Being”, I was forced to acknowledge what the last line of that incredible quote says:
“… people are not ready to surrender that much. They want the other to surrender; then it never happens.”
Even when you have the BEST of intentions. Even when your love and giving feels pure; free of negative energy. Even when you sacrifice. Even then … the seed of self interest takes root. We want our love – our investment of time, energy and Soul – to be rewarded with the validation of being returned.
It’s natural … we really can’t help it! That is why it takes the very active mindset of constantly grounding ourself in God … pruning back those probing tendrils of selfish hope, and planting them back in the Divine.
Unconditional Love is neither easy or natural … it is the great adventure of open-hearted fragility … the indomitable strength of letting go, and trusting God with ALL things.
Going against one’s learned nature is difficult … don’t get discouraged … just open your heart, and God is there; it’s that simple … no penance required. You simply are THAT Loved.
——-
Picture credit: gardenwebs.net
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
Source: Garden of You
What Defines You?
What exactly is it that defines you? Is it your family, or your nationality? Your career, or your dreams? What is that one, specific thing that defines you as a person … completely?
This is what I found myself meditating on today (from my prior post, “Forget the Pose“). Early on in my life, as I suppose would be the case for most people, it was my family. When you are a child, what else is there that could possibly define you more than that?
When family was taken away from me, in my teenage years, I was adrift in the vacuous void of aimless depression … so I suppose that depression defined me. In my twenties it became self-liberation and my dreams … going after the things I was passionate about, and letting nothing stand in my way.
Over time what I have chosen to define me has changed several times: a couple of times it became people I fell in love with, another time it became avoiding rejection at all costs, and at one point it was religion as well.
Here’s the thing though … ALL of those phases I described are exactly that … PHASES! They don’t define me any more than a Magnolia flower defines the tree. I made the decision to make them define me though … I wanted to be in control, because being OUT of control was way too scary a thing for me.
Now, I am at a new place … God defines me. The old things keep clawing at my mind to find their way into control … but I don’t even have to fight them any more. Once they get in? They come face to face with a Loving and Living God within me who has lit my Soul on fire … nothing else can take up residence in that place any longer.
Of course, that takes a certain amount of work as well. It’s not enough to just say that God defines you … you have to put in the work to make that reality. For me that means spending at least an hour or two with God each day. It was work for a while … now I find that I am loathe to leave God’s presence. Today was like that … an hour went by, and I automatically thought, “Okay, time to get up and go about my day.” Then I simply decided to just stay there … and spend some more time connecting with God … soaking in that Divine presence and Love.
So, yeah … there still are things that try to wrest control away … home life, love, the future and all the vagueness that entails. My mind struggles to try and DEFINE something, so that I can be in control. It’s like I needed all of those things, or people, to be there to take care of me in some way … so that I could be good enough … because it is clear that I obviously have been thinking that I am not good enough, or worthy enough.
God told me this today, “YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH.”
THAT is something to define me … that with God at the center of my being: I am good enough … all things are possible with Love ablaze in your heart. I can let go … there is no need to fight, or cling, or push … just let go, and BE … whoever, and wherever, and whatever it is that God guides me to be.
~~~~~~~
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
Source: What Defines You?
The Politics of Walls
In this heated, oftentimes hate and anger filled, world we live in … we must know that WE are still the authors of our own destinies. Nobody else truly has the power to make us angry or afraid … we allow it, we do it to ourselves with the contextual lens we look through each and every day.
So today I would like to meditate on the freedom of not allowing anyone to build or impose walls or boundaries around us. We are free … free to live and love and author the reality we want to live in!
My words to meditate upon:
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
– Maya Angelou
“Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”
– JRR Tolkien
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
– Joseph Campbell
~~~~~~~
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 Sum Of Our Parts
We are all the sum of our parts … those being experiences had (good and bad), and decisions made (good and bad).
There is no other person in the entire universe who actually “gets” how things occur uniquely for you … nobody.
None of them have your experiences … so when something happens to them they are triggered back to their own unique emotional responses based on their own set of experiences, memories, and decisions. You and your set of emotional reactions to the world spinning around you … are completely unique and literally not knowable to anyone else.
Kind of makes you feel lonely to think about. In thinking on this deeper however it actually gives me hope, and understanding, and forgiveness.
In my own life I was taken back to the first person who broke my heart. I vilified this person for years and made them into a complete monster.
That former love had no clue, however, what was being triggered in me by the lies, deception, and severing of our bond. For me it took me back to a childhood full of abuse, the death of my mother, rejection by my father, etc. I was a quasi-suicidal teenager … I’m also living proof that it very literally DOES get better. Each and every year that goes by gets better and better … life is is a beautiful and tragic miracle and through all that pressure, pounding, sculpting and polishing … it really can turn into a beautiful gem. So if you are in such a place … don’t give up hope. Keep living, and striving, and learning how to live with your heart wide open … life will get better.
Back to my earlier point … that person who broke my heart? The place that I was transported to by their rejection and deception was completely unique to me. There was no possible way anyone could have known the horrors of that place. That person did not do THAT to me … because they didn’t even know those levels of pain could exist, most likely.
I now look back and can literally see the whole scenario as a few mistakes that were made … mistakes that I very easily could have or could make in my own life. I can see that now and forgive them … LOVE them even. That person wasn’t a monster … they were just flailing around trying to find a way to stay afloat.
The same is true for everywhere we go in life. Every person you come across throughout your day is a unique universe unto themselves … their emotional triggers that take them back to places within them unknown to you or anyone else.
This is why LOVE is the only way to be … LOVE is the only source that translates to every person. True love … unconditional love … LOVE freely given from an open heart. It gets through that mine-field of personal travesties and recollections and touches people at their core. To live any other way … is to simply be setting off chain reactions of other people’s personal histories all around you, everywhere you go.
You really do change the world … but it is up to you to decide how you want to do that. All you have to do is LOVE, and you will be a success … a beautiful, stunning, dazzling success of a person … nothing else is needed, or even important.
Keep your heart open, and never close … become a conduit of Love … and life will miraculously transform around you.
~~~~~~~
* pic by Edward Honaker
~~~~~~~
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
Source: The Sum Of Our Parts
Changing Your Destiny
Below are my words to meditate upon today … on being the author of your own reality. We each are creators, made in the image of the Creator, and we create our own reality every second of each day … we create our reality based on how we view, perceive, translate and understand the world around us. If you take on another person’s perspective … suddenly your reality is different.
I strive to make my lens for viewing life simple: always having an open heart that is connected to God and follows wherever that leads. Still, many times every day I fail … I sense my heart being closed and must open it up again. The mere fact that I am doing this however means that I am actively CHANGING my own reality and altering my perception of the world around me. I am authoring a new reality … and we all, each and every one of us, have this ability.
If you are unhappy, you can change that … if you are fearful, you can change it. It might take some work, but there is hope … never give up, go forth and create!
Peace and Love
~~~~~~~
“What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.”
– Anaïs Nin
~~~
“I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you.”
– John Lennon
~~~
“God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail. ”
– Saint Augustine
~~~~~~~
- painting by Ella Richardson
~~~~~~~
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 Game Of Being Unenlightened
My words to meditate on for the day … on how we “play the game”. We make the choices and decisions that have us live in confusion, anxiety, depression, insecurity or self loathing. Then we go bounding about the earth with these decisions for how to live our lives affecting the flow of each day. We have the power to alter our course, to view the world differently … to be the author of our own reality. Peace and Love.
~~~
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
~~~
“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
– Jesus; the Bible, Luke 10: 38-42
~~~
“If somebody wants to remain unenlightened, it is absolutely his business to decide about it. If they want to play the game of being unenlightened, it’s perfectly okay. If you have become fed up with the world, if you are fed up with your anguish and anxiety and you have realized that now it is time to awake, then there is no difficulty. Nobody can prevent you. Nobody is preventing you. It is only your own decision to play the game as an unenlightened being or to play the game as an enlightened being. It is only a question of inner decision.”
– Osho
~~~~~~~
- pic from Something Borrowed Weddings
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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.
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Religion4All 
