tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45033564097647728732024-02-06T23:48:29.943-05:00MeditationsHamilton E. Salsich II
(in memory of my dad, Peter Withington Salsich Sr.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-90338136604886431002015-08-06T10:02:00.003-04:002015-08-06T10:02:55.052-04:00SIN<span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2c2a; font-family: alright-light, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 51.84000015258789px;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Alienation is exactly the contemporary term for what one used to call sin. The English word “sin” is connected with “asunder,” with cutting asunder, creating a rift with reality. The religious traditions have said that sin is a rift that alienates you from yourself, from all others, from the cosmos and the whole cosmic reality, and from the divine within you and beyond you. And its opposite is the blissfulness of belonging."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2c2a; font-family: alright-light, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 51.84000015258789px;">-- Brother David Steindl-Rast</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2c2a; font-family: alright-light, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 51.84000015258789px;"> </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-32296428264657122092015-08-06T09:32:00.000-04:002015-08-06T09:32:08.317-04:00<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">In Mark 12:41-44, the poor widow basically gives everything she owns to God -- basically empties her "self" completely, so that infinite Mind can flow in and entirely fill the vacancy. This is exactly what I need to do!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-47385617791722698392011-05-02T11:28:00.003-04:002015-08-06T09:19:23.809-04:00NEWNESS<style>
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I am slowly coming to understand this important truth – that oldness is nowhere and newness is everywhere. To take one example, every day is a totally new day. The sunrise each morning makes the trees shine in a slightly different way than they ever did before, and every breeze blows somewhat differently from all the yesterdays. Also, totally new things will happen to me today – the way a person smiles at me, the way some students stand beside me at an assembly, the way sunlight lands on my shirt at recess. Even every moment is brand new. As I type this paragraph, new dust motes are scattered on my desk in arrangements that have never existed before, and the shadows from my fingers fall on the keyboard in a completely original way. What is most astonishing for me to realize is that each <i>thought</i> is utterly new each moment. <i>The exact thought I am thinking right now has never been thought before –</i> <i>in the entire history of the human race. </i>It’s startling – almost scary – to realize that I live in a universe of such breathtaking newness. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-30859212462740503082011-03-08T07:03:00.002-05:002011-03-08T07:03:56.530-05:00RIGHT WHERE THEY SHOULD BE<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><style>
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</style> </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">This morning, I noticed my pencils and papers were right where I left them last night – right where they should be -- and it made me wonder if all of life is always right where it should be. I spend far too much time trying to tell things and people – including myself – where they should be and what they should be doing, when I should almost certainly just sit back and be in awe at the simple properness of everything. Pencils, papers, small twigs on trees, clouds that carry themselves silently above us – all are precisely where they need to be at this moment. Are they where I, with my worse than sparse wisdom and willpower, wish they were? Perhaps not, but neither are the falls at Niagara falling because I wish them to. The universe, together with my papers and pencils, is always just where it should be, relentlessly bringing to birth its absolute fittingness and precision. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-17467676052199419152011-03-07T14:07:00.001-05:002015-08-06T09:17:26.812-04:00WHAT CAN'T BE TAKEN AWAYMoney, good looks and cool friends can be taken from us, but we can't be robbed of gratitude, faith, joy and goodness, which lead to lasting supply, beauty, grace, health, andUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-85827614061837751752010-09-06T07:26:00.000-04:002010-09-06T07:26:30.796-04:00Never Any Separation<div style="color: purple; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"A unity of spirit to meet nature’s challenges can bring the intelligent responses and the adequate resources that are needed."</div><div style="color: purple; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-- Christian Science Monitor, September 3, 2010</div><br />
It's so important to remember, especially in emergency situations, that no one is ever separate from anyone else, any more than a breeze can be separate from the endless winds of the atmosphere.The universe is a single infinite entity, and, however much we might feel separate from each other and from the power of the universe (which some people refer to as "God"), any separation is an utter impossibility. Simply feeling that great fact, and really knowing it, can bring instant comfort and strength.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-61592968026665167742010-07-17T12:59:00.003-04:002018-10-15T08:01:49.283-04:00Never a Problem<div style="background-color: #ffe599;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">The Buddha taught that there’s never a problem with being exactly where I am, and occasionally the truth of that statement comes home to me quite clearly. First of all, where I am is the only possible place I <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> be, at least at this precise moment. Thinking of the here and now as a “problem” suggests that I think there’s a better place somewhere, a place and time where I would be happier, but there’s actually no other place, at least at this moment, than exactly where I am. Since this is true, the idea of a problem needing to be solved, a better situation needing to be found, becomes meaningless. There is never any other place and time than right here and now, and therefore, as a matter of plain fact, there is never any real problem. What's also interesting is that all that exists in any present moment is thought (or consciousness, or awareness). There seems to be lots of material “things” in the present moment, but these – if I analyze them carefully – exist only in thought, or consciousness. If this is true, and if the present moment is the only place I can ever be, then <i>it follows that the only real power in life is thought in the present moment</i>. What’s especially fun to realize is that since this thought, this power, is immaterial, it has no boundaries whatsoever! There’s absolutely no limit to what can be thought and how far thoughts can extend. A thought about being brave or compassionate is never born, like a material entity, and never ends, but extends out to infinity. Its power is unlimited. Therefore, how could there be a real problem in any present moment, when infinite power is always there? A problem arises only when I feel somehow powerless, but how can I feel powerless when any present moment contains never-ending power of incalculable force and variety? In fact, the present, right where I am, is always the <i>opposite</i> of a problem – always a moment when everything is precisely as it should be and must be, and when power is expanding out beyond the farthest horizons. What this is all about is going from a tiny picture to an amazingly big picture. When I’m thinking that the present moment is a problem, I’m seeing the smallest possible picture – the picture of little, isolated, vulnerable “me” surrounded by other isolated and threatening entities. It’s a nightmare picture, one that naturally leads to a thoroughly problem-filled life. However, when I change the picture to the biggest and truest of all – the one that shows both the endless reaches of space and the vast inner distances of limitless thought – I see clearly that there can never be a genuine problem in a universe of such boundlessness. There are changes, yes, and differences, and ups and downs, and happiness and sadness, and success and failure – but these are like breezes blowing in the never-ending wind of the universe. They’re not problems, just the way things are at this particular, inescapable, perfect, problem-free moment. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-3867164073043886902010-07-11T17:31:00.004-04:002018-10-15T08:21:36.150-04:00The Universe Will Still Be Harmonious and Happy<div style="color: #993399;">
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">A wonderful thought came today: when something termed a “disaster” happens to me, including the disaster called death, the universe will continue in its harmonious and happy way. So often I get entirely caught up in “me-ness”, seeing myself as somehow the center of the universe, and feeling that if something “bad” happens to me, the universe itself will suffer. It’s strange to me that I somehow developed the idea that a universe with no beginning and no end – a universe consisting of an endless number of astonishing occurrences moment by moment forever – would somehow go haywire if I was struck by cancer or lost my savings or died on a dark street. It bespeaks a weird view of the world, one that completely misses the immensity and miraculous complexity of all things. Imagine an ocean with no shore, no bottom, and no surface, and then imagine, say, a one-inch portion of a current in that ocean. Would the infinite ocean be unfavorably affected if that portion disappeared into another portion? We know instantly that the answer is no, and the same answer must be given to the question of whether the relatively wee phenomenon called Hamilton Salsich suffering a stroke would cause the everlasting universe to suffer. When something called “unfortunate” happens to me – and it certainly will, at some point – I and my family and friends can take comfort in the fact that the myriad miracles of the universe will continue unfolding and exploding everywhere and for all time. My disaster will be no more disastrous than a breeze bending around a tree and blending into a different breeze. <span style="color: #993399;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-23316652408094562212010-07-11T08:09:00.002-04:002015-05-06T06:33:09.404-04:00In Good Hands<div style="color: purple;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I have always spent a good part of my time concerned about my safety and security, but actually the infinite universe has me in its very good hands. The plain truth is that I am not a solitary and separate person who needs protection, but an essential and sheltered part of a single unending force (sometimes called the universe, sometimes God) that is always doing what is just right for itself. If I close my eyes, I can see myself as a breeze in a wind that never started and will never stop, or a wave in an ocean without end. How can this breeze or this wave possibly be harmed? They can change, certainly – everything in this universe is fluid and ever changing – but harm or destruction is literally not possible. The grand universe takes good care of uncountable stars and rivers and dust particles and hearts and blood streams, forever and ever, and it will take good care of me. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-14081565703061049602010-07-03T07:27:00.002-04:002010-07-03T07:28:41.323-04:00Car Alarms and Surf<meta content="" name="Title"> <meta content="" name="Keywords"> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" equiv="Content-Type"> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Generator"> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Originator"> <link href="file://localhost/Users/hamiltonsalsich/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"> <style><br /><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Bookman Old Style"; panose-1:2 5 6 4 5 5 5 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Baskerville Semibold"; panose-1:2 2 7 2 7 4 0 2 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:"Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --><br /></style>
<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">This morning, as I'm typing this, someone's car alarm is sounding down the street, which might be thought of as quite aggravating. However, it could also be thought of as simply some morning sounds -- even some <i>interesting </i>morning sounds. It’s strange, when I think about it, that I’m so accustomed to judging sounds: bad, good, annoying, pleasing, happy, sad. When I’m sitting at the shore listening to the sounds of the surf, I automatically categorize them as pleasant sounds, but I instinctively (and almost unconsciously) place the sounds of a car alarm in the “annoying” category. You might call me old Judge Salsich, the distributor of verdicts about the relative quality of sounds. But what if I took off my judicial robes? What if I simply accepted each sound as just what it is – a phenomenon in a universe of phenomena? Would it be possible, when listening to the car alarm, to say, “That’s a very interesting sound – just as interesting as the sound of the surf”? An odd but cheerful picture comes to mind: I’m standing on the sidewalk, looking down the street at the car whose alarm is sounding, and I’m smiling contentedly. Someone says, “Why are you smiling, Ham?” and I reply, “Oh, I just find those alarm sounds quite fascinating.” It could happen, but only if I give up judging sounds and just accept them for what they are – attention-grabbing gifts given by the universe. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-67922613938862646302010-06-10T07:58:00.000-04:002018-10-14T08:28:42.622-04:00Giving Way<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">A simple approach to any day’s living is to be less me-centered and more universe-centered. This would automatically make my life less hard, lest resistant, and much gentler and softer. Problems arise and grow fierce only when I’m thinking of a separate, frail, and therefore defenseless “me” as the center of everything. From that perspective, my full time job is to be tough, hard, and dead-set against injury to this separate person called “me”. It makes each day an exhausting combat. However, if I shift my perspective and see reality in an entirely new way, as an infinite oneness, a uni-verse in the true sense, suddenly everything calms down and softens. If there are no beginnings and endings, no boundaries between separate “things” and “persons”, no one to protect or be protected from, then existence, all of a sudden, is seen as a constantly restyling and entirely harmless dance. It enables me to unclench my fists, relax my muscles, and give easy way to every experience, like a lake gives way to whatever drops into it.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-14850266549855725972010-05-18T19:46:00.002-04:002015-05-06T06:39:25.327-04:00JUST WATCHING<span style="font-size: large;">It occurred to me this morning, during my sitting meditation, that what I was doing was incredibly easy. I was simply watching. I wasn’t actually doing anything or trying to get anywhere or attempting to improve myself. I was simply observing what was happening in the present moments as they passed by. It also came to me that I could do this easy task (if it can be called a task) at any time of the day or night. In fact, every moment of the rest of my life could be profitably spent simply watching – simply sitting in the grandstands of life and witnessing the seamless show that is reality. Of course, I will also be part of the show, carrying out my various roles as husband, father, and friend, but the wonderful part is that the other me – the real one – can be leaning back, folding his arms, and effortlessly following the action.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-74155528045225139262010-05-17T15:44:00.003-04:002015-05-06T06:43:22.707-04:00WHO KNOWS?<span style="font-size: large;"> Occasionally I wake up in the morning with a feeling of dread – a sense that something menacing awaits me in the coming hours, some bad news or signs of coming sorrow – and it is then that I ask the question: <i>Who knows?</i> Really – who knows what will happen in the next few hours, or in the next few minutes or seconds? The universe is a vast and baffling place, full of numberless events interweaving to make new events, and who can predict what events will float up to the surface today in that part of the universe called “my life”? At the dawn of each day, zillions of occurrences stand ready to come into existence, each of them as good and bad, as fearsome and wondrous, as waves in the sea. Who knows? Instead of the disasters I sometimes fear in the morning, I may find myself in the sudden sunshine of happiness at 7:00 am, and feel a wind of fine mental weather around 1:00. There’s no good sense in wondering or worrying. Waiting with a trusting expectation of miracles (which happen every moment) is the best way.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-57720804250995573432010-05-17T14:09:00.003-04:002018-10-15T17:26:54.195-04:00MY ONLY CHILD<span style="font-size: large;">I try to think of my “self” as my only child. This self, this little ego that I have created and raised inside me, is always a fearful and frail creature, calling out for protection and provision in this supposedly scary world. My “self” sees the world as a worrisome place, packed with perils and hazards all around. It runs scared all day and through most of the night. If it weren’t such a sad situation, it might be almost laughable, to think of this “thing” I’ve made making such a fearsome place out of a universe that, from some points of view, is a stunningly peaceable place. This is where I come in, the “father” of this only child I have created. I need to be a loving dad to this frightened little self. I need to comfort it when the perceived perils of the world seem to snarl around it. As part of this endless, marvelous universe, I need to hold my "self" comfortingly in awareness, accepting all its fears and concerns, consoling it with the truth that I - the Universe -- am vast enough to hold not only it, but everything that could happen to it, in my reassuring arms. <span style="color: red;">(10/15/18)</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-62293460817526505302010-05-14T16:36:00.003-04:002015-05-07T06:41:57.603-04:00ROOMINESS<span style="font-size: large;"> The main cause of every problem I’ve ever encountered in life is my belief in limits. Since my earliest days, I have been conditioned by my culture to believe that reality is basically a limited phenomenon. Life, it's been suggested, is basically made of perimeters, boundaries, and edges, all of them serving to separate. It’s been subtly impressed upon me, over and over, that reality is fundamentally a matter of countless separate, limited objects trying to maintain and protect themselves. Life, according to this interpretation, has more smallness than largeness, more constraint than openness -- more like a small, closed box than a vast, wide open space. I sometimes think about this when I am faced with what seems to be a threat to my personal comfort and security. In situations like this, I often begin feeling closed off, alone, and vulnerable, as if my life is little and locked up tight, a small box surrounded by innumerable enemies. Luckily, I sometimes find a few moments to think quietly about it, and I begin to see my mistake. I begin to see that the universe is not a place of limits, but of boundlessness. I begin to see, again, that life is not small and restricted, but vast and without walls of any sort. I see my “self” as it really is – as a part of an inexpressibly spacious universe that can hold any so-called threat with comfort and peacefulness. I realize that I am in no way weak and vulnerable, and that, in fact, I am not even a separate “I”. I am the universe and the universe is me, and therefore, truly, I am at liberty and illimitable. In a universe of such generous roominess, any apparent threat suddenly seems like nothing more than a silly and harmless charade.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-53886366849013453512010-05-14T11:03:00.001-04:002015-05-06T06:55:28.157-04:00STORMS, SUNSHINE, MOODS<span style="font-size: large;">It would be insane of me to think I could control the weather – to think that, by worrying and fretting and fuming and manipulating, I could produce one sunlit day after another. Anyone would consider that an utterly senseless way to think, but is it any more senseless than for me to think I can control happiness? I have spent a good part of my waking hours attempting to make sure I am happy at all times, and when, for umpteen various reasons, I occasionally find that I am not happy, I get nervous, cross, and sometimes quite sad. <i>Poor me! I’m not experiencing pure happiness right now! I don’t deserve this!</i> How silly would it be if I acted this way about the weather – if I went outside in a rainstorm and commanded the sun to come out! I wouldn’t do this, of course, because I fully understand that the weather does what it wants to when it wants to. The weather is irregular, inconstant, unsteady, and unsettled, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. What I have to do is realize that all of life, including moods, is exactly the same. Storms sometimes follow sunshine, and sadness occasionally comes after happiness. It’s the way things work. Just as I usually find a way to accept rainstorms and perhaps even appreciate them, I need to find a way to say yes to occasional gloom and grief, and who knows, perhaps even recognize the value of them.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-41039252245928363822010-05-14T11:01:00.002-04:002015-05-06T06:56:27.207-04:00WHY MEDITATION IS IMPORTANT<span style="font-size: large;">It came to me this morning that meditation is important because it puts me in touch with the only power in the universe – the eternal present moment. All the other activities I could engage in, including reading books about meditation, involve gaining something, changing something, getting somewhere, being somebody different, improving myself – in other words, moving away from the present moment. Only meditation says, “This moment, right here right now, is perfect, so live in it and appreciate it.” I see more and more clearly that I have been trying to flee from the present moment for most of my life – obsessively throwing myself into pursuits that would take me anywhere but the present. The word “pursuit’ fits perfectly here, because it is, indeed, a chase – an attempt to catch some future moment instead of living in the all-powerful present. Even reading a book about meditation has to do with freeing myself from the present, becoming someone different – more educated, more spiritual – than who I am right now. Only meditation brings me face to face with the trouble-free, all-embracing, and unbounded present.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-88591836131238120452010-03-14T07:38:00.000-04:002015-05-07T06:44:29.927-04:00FUSSING<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"> Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I realized with a shock that I had spent almost the entire day thinking about myself. Whether it was worrying about </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">my</i><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"> health, wondering what </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">I </i><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">was going to have for lunch, planning </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">my</i><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"> afternoon, or scolding </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">myself</i><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"> for past mistakes, it was all about little, isolated, fearful </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">me</i><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">. It was an appalling thing to realize, because it made me see clearly, once again, how much I miss in a given day. While I was fretting over my supposed isolation and vulnerability, the grand universe was performing its astonishing tricks, as usual. Stars and planets were rolling right along, winds were free and full of life as usual, and life in all its immensity and grandeur was giving its gifts to all of us – and I was fussing about dozens of harmless and inconsequential matters.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-92213003172374354462009-09-12T07:21:00.001-04:002009-09-12T07:21:24.537-04:00Waiting and Watching<br/><iframe scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='246' height='20' src='http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pf521803f3acb21fa565d46a4754b4396bFpxRlREZ2N2&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21'> </iframe><br/><a href='http://www.hipcast.com/export/Pf521803f3acb21fa565d46a4754b4396bFpxRlREZ2N2.mp3' rel='enclosure'>MP3 File</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-72948624323137439982009-09-11T06:53:00.001-04:002009-09-11T06:53:37.659-04:00Taking Fast Hold<br/><iframe scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='246' height='20' src='http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=P8e14bafed7da63891da40974020ff58dbFpxRlREZ2N3&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21'> </iframe><br/><a href='http://www.hipcast.com/export/P8e14bafed7da63891da40974020ff58dbFpxRlREZ2N3.mp3' rel='enclosure'>MP3 File</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-78185349123548405892009-08-28T04:51:00.001-04:002009-08-28T04:51:17.505-04:00"I Am From Him"<br/><iframe scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='246' height='20' src='http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=P7f356dc28ea66d18f870d15a81dd04cabFpxRlREZ2N0&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21'> </iframe><br/><a href='http://www.hipcast.com/export/P7f356dc28ea66d18f870d15a81dd04cabFpxRlREZ2N0.mp3' rel='enclosure'>MP3 File</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-8858759848330701302009-08-27T07:21:00.001-04:002009-08-27T07:21:03.482-04:00The Stars Will Continue Shining<br/><iframe scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='246' height='20' src='http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=P90c26f92a9ebda08e04e70f1ec3b3dd6bFpxRlREZ2N1&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21'> </iframe><br/><a href='http://www.hipcast.com/export/P90c26f92a9ebda08e04e70f1ec3b3dd6bFpxRlREZ2N1.mp3' rel='enclosure'>MP3 File</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-85201989278356949282009-07-17T06:28:00.001-04:002015-05-06T07:13:24.354-04:00SALVATION<span style="font-size: large;">In the Bible reading for today, Jesus says to a man, “This day is salvation come to your house.” This day. Not tomorrow or yesterday. Not sometime in the future, but this day, in these 57,000 moments stretching ahead of me. This Friday, July 17, 2009. Salvation – as the dictionary says, “the preservation or deliverance from destruction, difficulty, or evil.” Today I will be preserved and delivered. It takes a powerful force to preserve and deliver, and I will, indeed, be in the presence of, and part of, the strongest possible force – the force of the gently unfolding and infinite present moment. I will be preserved from destruction, yes, but not only destruction. I will also be delivered (rescued) all day from “difficulty or evil”. That’s an amazing thing to realize, that on this day I will be (am, right now) part of a power that knows no boundaries or limits, and that instantly destroys any difficulty or evil. This is the true meaning of salvation, and it has come to my “house” on this day. Rejoice!</span><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="20" scrolling="no" src="http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=P201b9a02bd6d63ed28082459fa6cef7bbFpxRlREZmp8&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21" width="246"> </iframe><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-49182392238218399472009-07-15T06:34:00.001-04:002015-05-06T07:15:03.900-04:00RAYS OF THE SUN<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One-ness is the hardest mystery to understand, but it is also the most important. “Never two, but one” – that’s the grand truth that I must contemplate as I go about my teaching today. My scholars and colleagues and I are not separate from each other. We are not separate, distinct physical beings engaged in a struggle to get and protect. That’s the universally accepted belief, but it’s simply not true. Today, all that will be happening is the unfoldment of thought in the present moment. Each present moment, a thought will be causing everything to happen. For convenience sake, we call it “my” thought or “Jimmy’s” thought or “Anna’s” thought, but it’s all really just thought in an infinite universe of thought. That’s why the sun is a good comparison. In my classroom today, the infinite sun of Thought (sometimes called God) will be shining, and my scholars and I will be the rays of that sun. There won’t be many separate suns – just the rays of the one infinite sun.</span><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="20" scrolling="no" src="http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pe58d52419e9ebdb117687196011c6375bFpxRlREZmp9&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21" width="246"> </iframe><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503356409764772873.post-82915465198201795432009-07-14T06:06:00.001-04:002015-05-06T07:15:49.037-04:00GOD, THE LORD<span style="font-size: large;">The word “God” or “Lord” is mentioned thousands of times in the Bible, and it reminds me of something: the nature of God is the most important thing for me to study. Nothing else counts if I don’t understand – not just believe but really understand – what God is. Today I want to focus on keeping in mind just exactly what this God is that I’ve been praying about all these years. I want to keep before my thought the great fact that there is always only one power active at any given moment and that is the power of thought, or awareness. Since it’s the only power, then it is unopposed and unlimited – that is, it goes on forever. And also, since there is nothing besides this power of thought, or awareness, then there really is nothing material – no “me”, for instance. “I” am a part of this infinite power. I think and work because this power thinks and works. This power – this infinite thinking, this unlimited Mind – is God, the Lord.</span><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="20" scrolling="no" src="http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pd2420a36262617330d6c909109067348bFpxRlREZmpy&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21" width="246"> </iframe><br />
<a href="http://www.hipcast.com/export/Pd2420a36262617330d6c909109067348bFpxRlREZmpy.mp3" rel="enclosure">MP3 File</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com