Archive for Election
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
Why American Republicans are so angry
I don’t normally get involved in politics in this page, but I have found it impossible not to ruminate on the topic leading up to election day. There has been so much more anger and hostility than I have ever seen in an American election that has given me pause to wonder.
I remember my brother, a staunchly right wing voter, said to me after Barack Obama won his first term,
“This isn’t really a reflection of the majority of America, it is just a reaction to the Bush administration. Next election he will be gone.”
Then, when Obama won a second term, he didn’t make such bold prognostications … but he was still adamant that what Obama represented did NOT represent the majority of Americans. In his view what Republicans really needed to win was a “true conservative”.
I would not put Trump into the category of “true conservative”, however he has whipped up the ultra conservative base like no other candidate I have seen. So, while I don’t think Trump is a “true conservative”, he has motivated the base in a way that I believe was what my brother wanted … someone who motivated the “real majority” to get out and go out and vote.
So here is, in my opinion, why Republicans are spitting mad this year and talking revolt. They are finally starting to realize that they are no longer the majority. They have been the majority for a very long time and it feels like something is being taken from them that they have cherished.
I get that, I can relate with that.
I am a member of one of the minority groups in this country. I can attest that it does not feel good to be disrespected. I acknowledge that it makes the blood boil when you feel like other people are trying to MAKE you fit into a mold that they have cast … when you don’t fit into that mold.
The majority is becoming the minority … and the minorities have largely banded together to make it so.
As much as one side might like to take it out on the other … to have them know what it feels like to be treated in such a manner. This is a mistake … and it is not the behavior of someone with an open heart who is connected to God.
I hope that when this day ends we can actually “go high”, instead of just using it as a catchphrase. I hope that this country can focus on Love, compassion, understanding and, yes, compromise.
It is no easy thing for them … just as it has been no easy thing for those of us who have been minorities all along. We all still will be living together.
God is Love … measure all of your actions against that measuring stick … is how you are conducting yourself the embodiment of Love? Surrender, let go of the ego … and Love.
That is how I plan to move forward.
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
A Thanksgiving Retreat
Dawn at Trout Lake Abbey, at the base of Mt. Adams in Washington state.
I am blessed to be giving thanks at one of my favorite spiritual retreat centers, Trout Lake Abbey; a place set aside to welcome and celebrate people of any and all faiths. Many thanks to the happiest monk I know, Kozen.
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
Voting – a right lives have been given for
I just slapped the “I voted” sticker upon my lapel. I urge any of my American readers to do the same today. Voting is it right that should never be taken for granted … a right that thousands of our fellow countrymen have died to give us.
It’s easy to become frustrated or disillusioned with all the back and forth bickering, and attack ads.
A guideline that I use for just about everything in life is this … does it put us on a track toward Love?
If Love is the most important thing that we can be devoting our lives to … then shouldn’t we be using Love as the most important criteria for voting.
That’s how I boil down the rhetoric. I think if you can go out and say that you voted for someone who will make us a more loving country … I believe your conscience will be pretty darn clear :-).
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
;
Religion4All 