Wednesday, January 28, 2009

THE WEB OF THE UNIVERSE

Written on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

I feel like I’m making progress in understanding that I am not a separate, isolated part of the universe, but am rather a part of an infinite whole. I’m realizing, more and more, that whatever affects someone else, affects me. It’s as if the entire universe is an endless web, where the slightest motion in one part of the web ripples out to even the most distant part. When someone is sad in one part of the world, I, in some way, am affected, or changed, by that sadness; when someone is filled with joy, no matter if they are on the opposite side of the world, I share in that joy. I think the word “share” is especially important here. In a very real sense, we all share our lives with every other life. Take a feeling like happiness, for instance. If I see a person walking down the street in obvious happiness, I actually possess as much of his happiness as he does. After all, happiness is not a physical, material thing that can be “owned” or “kept” by anyone. It’s a spiritual, unlimited quality. Once it is felt by a single person, it instantly flows out on the web to the farthest part of the universe. The sad reality is that most of us rarely feel this connection with the rest of the universe. We think of feelings like joy and sorrow as sensations that we privately own, not realizing that we can no more own them than we can own the wind. The wind blows across the entire earth, and so do our inner lives. If I am totally aware today, I will share the happiness or sorrow of the world as it ripples to me across the infinite never-ending web of creation.

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BAPTISM EVERY MOMENT

Written on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

This morning I read the story of Naaman, the Syrian general who was cured of a skin disease by washing himself in the Jordan River seven times. It got me thinking how thrilled the general must have been to see that his skin was clean, that he was completely healed, that he could start over with a brand new life. He probably went around in a stupor of joy and wonder for many days. He might have asked himself many times, “Did this really happen? Am I really cured?” What’s wonderful, to me, about this story is that this kind of feeling could – and should – come to me constantly, for I am literally cleansed and made new every moment of every day. I have meditated countless times on the wonderful truth that the only moment that ever exists is the present moment, that this moment is always mental, and that therefore it is always new. (Only material things can age and get “old”.) I am always living in a completely new moment, and it follows that I must always be entirely new, fresh, sparkling, clean – and cured. I hope I can remember this truth throughout this chilly, rainy day. Wherever I am at any particular moment – at school, driving somewhere, at home reading the newspaper – I hope the truth of my total newness will be present to me. I hope I have, moment after moment, the same feeling Naaman had after he was cleansed of his disease. I should go around in a stupor of astonishment: Am I really brand new, fresh, sparkling, and clean – right now??



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THE GIFT OF SUFFERING

Written on September 26, 2008

An important truth for me to remember today is that suffering can bring helpful blessings. In fact, suffering may be the quickest way for me to learn, or re-learn, the elementary truths of reality. I often get lost, for days and weeks, in the nightmare that life is a material phenomenon, and suffering can awaken me to the simple truth that all reality, including all power, is mental, or spiritual. Suffering is like an alarm clock that tells me it’s time to wake up – to turn away from materialism and toward an awareness of the spiritual nature of the universe. Jesus understood this. When he was preparing himself for the suffering he was going to experience during the crucifixion, one of the first things he did was give thanks to God. I can imagine him, in the midst of his fears, quietly remembering that, no matter what happens, spiritual power (which some people refer to as “God”), manifested in qualities like love, kindness, patience, and courage, has no limit and no opposition, and that it will ultimately be victorious. I can imagine a refreshing peacefulness filling his heart. No doubt it’s strange to think of being grateful for suffering. Most of us want to avoid suffering at all costs, and we flee from it at first notice. But perhaps I can be different today. Perhaps I can keep in mind that any kind of suffering is a generous gift from the universe – a gift to remind me that all is spiritual, and all is well.

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TAKING IN AIR, GETTING TO KNOW GOD

MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2006

"But I know him: for I am from him." --John 7: 29

This morning’s quote from my Bible lesson reminds me that I really don’t have to work hard, or struggle, or study, to get to know God. Lately, I have been doing just that. I made a decision a few months ago that I needed to find out just what this entity called “God” is, and so I’ve been “working” at it – pinching my brows over the Bible and my notebook as I “struggle” to understand this concept that has been a huge part of my life for many years. I’ve thought of the process as a “project” I can devote my efforts to – getting to know God the way you might get to know a difficult, abstruse book. However, this morning’s quote from Jesus settles me down a little, reassures me, reminds me that there is actually no work involved. After all, if I am part of something, I don’t really need to study it in order to understand it. That would be as silly as trying to “understand” my own breathing, or trying to “get to know” the beat of my own heart. I am as much a part of God as a wave is part of the ocean, or as a breeze in Wilcox Park is part of the winds blowing across the earth. I know God, not the way you would know a separate object, but the way a tree limb knows the tree, or the way a flower petal knows the flower. Today I want to remember this wonderful fact. Yes, in one sense it’s good to “work hard” at studying the spiritual truths of life, but it’s also important to realize that, in fact, those truths are as close to me as my fingers, or as the breath in my own lungs. Taking in air is pretty easy, and so is getting to know God.



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NO BAD DAYS

Yesterday I had what people call “a bad day”, and I found myself growing discouraged about my teaching. I felt that I wasn’t doing a good job as a teacher – that I was getting disorganized, that I was falling behind in my syllabus, that perhaps the students were growing discontented and confused. I berated myself for most of the afternoon. I saw myself as a teacher who was maybe on the downhill run toward mediocrity and retirement. Luckily, though, on the drive home from school, an enlightening and comforting thought came to me. I don’t know why, but I started thinking of the ocean, with its swirling currents and tumbling waves and varying weathers and conditions, and it occurred to me that the ocean cannot have a bad day. No one would look out at the sea and say, “Gosh, the ocean is not doing well today. It’s not being a very good ocean.” No...the ocean is always just being the ocean, and whatever it happens to be doing is precisely what it should be doing. The ocean, in that sense, is always a perfect ocean. Whatever its condition -- whether there are storms, sunshine, calmness, choppiness, swells, or stillness -- the ocean is always a flawless ocean. This was a reassuring thought. It helped me see that, at every moment, what is happening in my life is just as perfect as the ocean. Whatever is being said or thought or done is exactly what should be said or thought or done. It isn’t good or bad, it's just the way things are. I also saw that my discouragement as a teacher yesterday stemmed from focusing on “me” instead of on the “ocean” of education of which I am merely a part. I saw that thinking that “I” was failing as a teacher was as silly as thinking that a particular wave in the ocean could “fail” as a wave. The wave has no choice but to be one special wave in the special and vast sea, and I have no choice, really, but to be a meaningful part of the infinite sea of teaching and learning. I don’t mean to suggest that I am some kind of super-teacher. Quite the opposite. Good teaching, in fact, has nothing to do with some “me” or “I”. It’s about an endless and unfathomable process, of which we individual teachers are just one small part. Taken as a whole, it’s a process that’s seamless and magnificent. Yesterday, I tried my best, and the universe tried its best. What more can I ask for? What was happening in the ocean and in my classroom yesterday was what should have been happening, and it will be again today. It’s the way it has to be. It’s the law.


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ROOM FOR ANYTHING


     I hope to keep in mind today that there’s ample room in life for whatever happens. So often I get the feeling that my life is a fairly small and cramped enclosure, with little available space for unexpected events. I have lived most of my years as though existence was a one-room apartment, necessarily filled with defense mechanisms and surrounded by sentries. I’ve felt, I guess, that I could handle only so much (and not much, at that), and any additional occurrences must be kept at bay. I now know that this is an entirely inaccurate view of life, and today I want to keep the truth front and center in my mind. Life is, in fact, infinite. There are no starting points, walls, boundaries, limits, or finish lines. Existence is like a sky that doesn’t start anywhere and doesn’t end anywhere – a “place” that has room for every possible person, object, situation, or event. What I call “me” is simply an ever-changing feature of this endless sky of life – a feature that swirls and transforms together with countless others. None of these are “good” or “bad”, “constructive” or “destructive”; they are just parts of the always shifting phenomenon we call life. No matter what happens today – triumph or disaster, celebration or sorrow – there’s more than abundant room for it. In the sky above us, all clouds float freely, coming and going, and so will all that happens today.




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