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19 Apr 2006 @ 11:43, by vector8. Spirituality
I love stroking the back of my neck and my arms because it feels nice. When I can't be bothered to do it physically and there's no one to do it for me, I imagine my hand stroking my neck and my arms. I still end up having the same sensations.
If I can have sensations by thought alone, I dread to think how many times I have done something because of one thought or another. For example, have you ever noticed how people are constantly looking at their watches. Even though I stopped wearing one years ago, from time to time I find myself looking at public clocks; I'm obviously picking up on thought impulses; clocks are sending out signals to check the time, and there are people constantly asking what the time is which makes people check their watches...and so the thought-form ticks on. More >
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 15 Apr 2006 @ 11:39, by jazzolog. Spirituality
A photo of a churchyard in Lascun
How can I construct my humble hut right here in the midst of Oxford Circus? How can I do that in the confusion of cars and buses? How can I listen to the singing of birds and also to the leaping of fish? How can one turn all the showings of the shop window displays into the freshness of green leaves swayed by the morning breeze? How am I to find the naturalness, artlessness, utter self-abandonment of nature in the utmost artificiality of human works? This is the great problem set before us these days.
---D.T. Suzuki, addressing a conference of world religions in London, 1936
Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.
---Rainer Maria Rilke
Winter having come,
the crows perch
on the scarecrow.
---Kikaku
Ilona is in the Pyranees this Easter weekend, where snow may cover the mountaintops all the time...so Kikaku's observation may not be completely inappropriate today. Besides, the cross is something of a scarecrow too...and in the winter of our discontent the crows sit on it and caw away.
No more sermons today in this quiet day of expectation and hope---unless I can't help it. The 6:00 morning here was utter mystery. We have a new pup that Jeroch rescued, as his chain had become entangled in a bridgepost. He must have broken loose with no ID, so we've welcomed him in. We named him Jacques in honor of Ilona's school quarter in France...and that was before the vet told us he's mostly Jack Russell terrier. Down the hill he went after a herd of deer breakfasting in the meadow, waking the late risers among the bird population. More >
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3 Apr 2006 @ 13:35, by vector8. Spirituality
In a recent article called Old Habits are Dying Hard, Thank God!, I discussed what I believe stops us from being our real self on a permanent basis. I said we are too used to believing only in what we can see instead of believing in our real Self. Actually, that is not strictly true. Consider the following: More >
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2 Apr 2006 @ 18:53, by poetsong. Spirituality
I imagine everyone here shares my feeling, "The world as we see it is not how the world should be." There are wars, and famines, and people mistreating people.
It is no mystery that some bad people have fairly fun lives, while some good people have fairly miserable lives. Why?
One of the biggest questions people have is, "If God had the power to make things better, why doesn't he?" Why not stop all wars, eliminate all diseases, and halt natural disasters?
Most people here are tender-hearted. They hate seeing suffering and violence. And it would seem "if God is good", he would be like them, and just stop the nonsense. First, let me say, that is very much the nature of God- tender-hearted. He does hate suffering and violence, and misery. The question reverts then to "Is God good?" and then, "If God is good, then why?"
I wrestled for years with the seeming unfairness I saw in the world. It isn't a mystery to the observant. Obviously, I've come to some resolutions, or I would not be writing this message.
First let me state what I know to be true. God didn't want the world to look like this. He wanted all of the good, multiplied beyond our imaginations, with none of the bad.
All the good we see is but a shadow of his intentions, and in fact, his mind is bent on restoring the world (a New World) and the Universe to perfection. In fact, what he has intended is far beyond the imagination. No imagination can grasp what God intends. Only a "hair's breath" can be grasped by revelation.
How then did we get here if this is not what God wanted? It is important to understand that when this Universe was created, it not only had natural laws, but spiritual laws. Gravity is a natural law. Gravity doesn't hate or love, it simply is. Spiritual laws are not much different. They act independent of judgment, and therefore they are neither vendictive nor merciful. They just are.
This world was a gift to mankind in a way that no other gift could possibly be. Let's imagine the world is a car, and God made the perfect car, one that would run smoothly and forever if left as it is. Now picture God in love with mankind, and saying, "The keys to the world are yours."
Well, if we crash it, can we blame God? We might want to say, "You gave us the keys, so we're mad...you should have known we'd be irresponsible and crash the world..."
God had to take a risk, because love takes risks. Love has to risk rejection, and the free will of the other to walk away, or mistreat the lover. God could not force his will upon us if he loved us. He had to leave us with choices, and choices have consequences.
When God made the Universe, he decided there was one part of the Universe he would share fully with his beloved (us) and in doing so, he would not micromanage it. In fact, he put its forests, its animals, all under our authority. "You are to this world as I am to the Universe...it's forests and animals are under your authority to do with as you see fit." (Paraphrased)
The good part of that is that this world was like a blank canvas that we could make even more beautiful. We could divert waters for gardens, and create a paradise for the animals. We had the power to bless this earth, but something happened on the way to perfect paradise.
Mankind crashed this world, again, and again. We might demand that God fix it, but that is not the way things work.
God left two powers in charge of the earth to teach us how to parallel park. The first power was natural law. If men light a match, they stoke a fire. If they are irresponsible, they can burn down a forest. We have power to bless, but also power to harm. We must understand the laws that govern power.
Now, since this is "Our planet" and God handed "us" the keys, it is in "our power" to trash what should have been the greatest blessing the Universe has known.
It is no different than a parent handing a deed to a property with a mansion over to their son, and having him burn decide to burn it down. The house and trees are scarred, and he gets angry, and says, "You hate me...you gave me this flamable house, and when I lit it, it burned to charcoal. Now, fix it!"
"No, I gave you a beautiful house with a beautiful garden, and I expected you would take care of it, and enjoy it forever...I never said I would stop you from destroying my gift to you..."
The earth was "our house" and we were given the deed to the property.
Now, physical law is actually the least damaging of the two forces God placed into the world. Spiritual law is far more powerful and the consequences last longer.
The second law, the spiritual law, is predominated by two forces. "Blessings and curses". We have the power to unleash both blessings and curses into the world.
This is not something we are ignorant of. All religions and most philosophies believe in a form of Sowing and Reaping.
Sowing and Reaping are the ways that Blessings and Curses are unleashed.
So, let us backtrack. God did not intend this world to wound us. It was in beautiful shape when we inherited it. Mankind refused to acknowledge the powers of "Sowing and Reaping", and errantly assumed they could do whatever they wanted to the world, and it wouldn't matter.
Why do good people suffer? - If you understand spiritual laws, God has refused to interfere with our crashing the world, except by his mercy, but, since this was "our world", he requires "our invitation".
When some pray, "Thy will be done on earth...as it is in heaven", they have no clue what or why they are saying this. Why would we have to ask God to change things on our world?
Because it is "our world". This is why the law of prayer works. It isn't because God doesn't want to heal everyone, but he is bound to his own laws. If we have unleashed curses into this world, sure he could stop them all, but he is waiting for our invitation to intervene.
It would appear that God should simply step in, take away the keys of our authority, and clean up this mess for us. However, the whole point of his giving us the world was not to harm us, but to help us, to help us understand who he is.
This world is filled with countless object lessons. However, we (as a race) are blinded to them, because we have not accepted the very first of the Laws- sowing and reaping leads to blessing and curses.
And when curses fall upon nations, all are wounded, even the innocent. But it was not by "God's desire". Spiritual laws are indifferent. They are neither merciful or vengeful. They are like the law of gravity. If a beautiful hearted person jumps off a cliff they are not going to land more gently than a creep. The law doesn't discriminate.
If you will, curses can't come into a home or nation unless mankind leaves the door open to them. Likewise, blessings will also wait outside the door for men to open the door.
Unless we humans learn wisdom, and that there are consequences to our choices, we make the mistake of assuming we can do whatever we want and nothing will happen.
This is the primary reason why prayer works. By our will, we allow the designer a chance to come in and change the landscape. We open a door.
Many good-hearted people want a clean world, and a disease free world. At some point that will be, but untiul then, we must understand how things work.
We must understand how our sowing and reaping impact the "Physical Laws"- stop polution, stop burning forests, stop wasting resources.
But we must also learn how our sowing and reaping brings cursings and blessings into this world. God is capable of cleaning up curses and leaving blessings behind. But we must invite God to do so. Yet, it is not enough to keep asking God to fix our problems. That is akin to our pouring gasoline on our roofs with a match, and asking God to keep blowing out the flames. We have to learn how spiritual laws operate, because in effect, we can open a continuous window of blessing, and eliminate curses, something no generation of mankind has ever witnessed, except in small measure. |
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