I have tried to maintain
my sense of inner peace as the Republican and Democrat conventions occurred.
Certainly, the Democrat convention appealed more to my progressive Christian
values, as well as to my belief in the Oneness of us all. What I heard at the
Republican convention was fear, fear and more fear. There are “different”
people “out there” who are a threat and we have to fight, conquer, and destroy.
It just didn’t sound very “peaceful” to me.
To maintain my sense of inner peace, calm and
serenity, I ask the God of my understanding each morning to direct my thinking
and then try to meditate. I then pray a gratitude prayer for another day of
sobriety each evening. When I am a
little tense, as I was following the conventions, it is difficult for me to
calm my mind in meditation.
At a recent Course in Miracles (ACIM) meeting I
was reminded of the Course’s guide to meditation, It states in several places,
primarily in the Wordbook for Students, step-by-step directions for meditating.
One of the more straightforward discussions occurs in Lesson 189: I feel the Love of God within me now. [Italicized
emphases are mine]
1 There is a light in you the world
cannot perceive. And with its eyes you will not see this light, for you are
blinded by the world. Yet you have eyes to see it. It is there for you to look
upon. It was not placed in you to be kept hidden from your sight. This light is
a reflection of the thought we practice now. To feel the Love of God within you
is to see the world anew, shining in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed
with perfect charity and love.
2 Who could feel fear in such a world as
this? It welcomes you, rejoices that you came, and sings your praises as it
keeps you safe from every form of danger and of pain. It offers you a warm and
gentle home in which to stay a while. It blesses you throughout the day, and
watches through the night as silent guardian of your holy sleep. It sees
salvation in you, and protects the light in you, in which it sees its own. It
offers you its flowers and its snow, in thankfulness for your benevolence.
3 This is the world the Love of God
reveals. It is so different from the world you see through darkened eyes of
malice and of fear, that one belies the other. Only one can be perceived at
all. The other one is wholly meaningless. A
world in which forgiveness shines on everything, and peace offers its gentle
light to everyone, is inconceivable to those who see a world of hatred rising
from attack, poised to avenge, to murder and destroy.
4 Yet
is the world of hatred equally unseen and inconceivable to those who feel God's
Love in them. Their world reflects the quietness and peace that shines in
them; the gentleness and innocence they see surrounding them; the joy with
which they look out from the endless wells of joy within. What they have felt
in them they look upon, and see its sure reflection everywhere.
5 What
would you see? The choice is given you. But learn and do not let your mind
forget this law of seeing: You will look upon that which you feel within.
If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world,
held cruelly in death's sharp-pointed, bony fingers. If you feel the Love of
God within you, you will look out on a world of mercy and of love.
6 Today we pass illusions, as we seek to
reach to what is true in us, and feel its all-embracing tenderness, its Love
which knows us perfect as itself, its sight which is the gift its Love bestows
on us. We learn the way today. It is as sure as Love itself, to which it
carries us. For its simplicity avoids the snares the foolish convolutions of
the world's apparent reasoning but serve to hide.
7 Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned
about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of
everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought
it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing.
Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever
learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God.
When I meditated I used to attempt to keep
stray thoughts from happening. So, while meditating, all I did was “fight” the
thoughts I was having. I believed that’s what “…lay aside all thoughts…” meant.
It doesn’t. I will have these constant stray thoughts. I just need to observe
them – not ponder them – and let them flow on by. I become An Observer Self to
my human self, and, as I observe my thoughts, I listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit – just as I
“listened” for the alerting cries from my children after I put them to bed. I
learned (somehow) to distinguish between fretful cries and “important” cries. I
hear the Voice of Spirit, as opposed to the voice of my own ego, in the same
way.
Trust me, I’m not a perfect meditator. But when
I do this observing-of-my-human-self well, the time really speeds by. A 30-minute
meditation will seem like it lasted only 5 minutes. Otherwise a 30-minute
meditation seems to last an hour.
As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand,
on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or
thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable
car” is a different “I” than the one that says to my Holy Spirit, “I can’t do
this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”
Although
these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to
know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your
friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.
Don
#1 Aug 2016
Copyright 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment