Thank you so much for this. To keep our minds pure from the fear of the world and of each other is to know God's love, our certain safety and everlasting bliss. I especially appreciated the reminded that we have no place to escape to, we carry this in our minds and hearts and all we must do is awaken to it! It is such a privilege to know this and to relax into it and not let anything or anybody distract us from Christ and His Vision. So appreciate the other comments as well. So than you for this forum in which to share.
Thank you for reading and sharing Eckie . . . Yes the emphasis on giving attention in a devoted way, in not being distracted, is so helpful . . . All is given and we will remember this as soon as we are willing . . . Thank you again 🙏🙏
Beautifully written. l loved the chapter in the text about the Lilies.
The daily news is such a horror story that l stopped watching it and don't miss it at all. Having not seen it for a while, the toxicity of the ego personalities is even more startling, glaring and painful to watch and listen to than it was when l made the decision to stop watching it, as it is now more apparent than ever. Forgiveness can be a type of spiritual practice while watching the news, knowing that the truth of people is perfect despite the crazy ego's masquerading across the screens.
l like your final words about suffering being an illusion that might be undone, when we live the truth of God's love. Your writing sets a fine example and is one way of doing just this.
Thank you Jayney. Yeah, the horror show of the news - really, the horror show wherever I turn, if I'm being honest.
And yet :)
I find - as I think you find - the decision to seek peace, as in literally setting an intention, and then being present to it with all my heart and mind - seems to create these openings through which love pours, healing the fear that gives rise to the nightmare.
So less attention give to screens and the stories playing out on them, and more attention to the garden, the bees, the apple blossoms, the horses, the river and the trees, et cetera. That world too includes elements of suffering and sacrifice (how could it not) and yet there I remember to remember what I once swore to forget.
Friends help, too :) So thank you Jayney, for being here so thoughtfully 🙏🙏
Thank you for this Sean. “…let us ask to be reminded of that shared love.” “Reminded.” What you’ve shared this morning reminds me that there is nothing for me or for any of us to “obtain” to “become” whole. We are already whole. Perhaps this entire bodily experience is simply a process of being awakened to what we’ve forgotten?
I went to a retreat last weekend and the theme was
“A spirituality of subtraction,” based on this same idea. On this earthly journey (or whatever it is!), I’m not seeking that which can make me holy, but instead letting go of everything that keeps me from the awareness that I AM holy. How freeing is that? This seems like the ultimate shift in perception to me.
Richard Rohr has a great book called “Falling Upward” where he posits a similar idea - that we spend the first half of our lives building this container around us - this image of ourselves that we want to protect (ego) and at the same time project to the world, and we spend the second half of our lives breaking it down, letting these false, ego-centered ideas go and awakening to who we are in Christ. He’s clear that these “halves” are not chronological - that he has met young children in cancer wards already in the second half, and seniors still stuck in the first “half.”
It made me think about the fact that when I came into this world as a baby, I had no concept of jealousy, or lack, or “mine” (at least until my first time at the breast😊). All these ultimately false ideas have been picked up along the way. Perhaps my primary task here is to let them go - again, not to become something I’m not, but to awaken to who I already am. Thank you Sean!
Thank you, Mark. Yeah, the bit about the stages of liberation/awakening/etc not being necessarily yoked to the body's chronology feels important to me. It humbles me. And it does seem to help shift the focus of healing away from some specific locus with which I prefer to identify.
I find some of Ken Wilber's work in this domain (notably Up from Eden and The Atman Project) to be helpful as well. I am not as familiar with Rohr, but his name comes up a lot. I need more time for all the reading I long to do (and would definitely be helped by) :)
I am comforted knowing that there is nothing to do but remember, and comforted as well - especially as I get older - by realizing that what obstructs memory is, in ACIM terms, ego. For reasons that are not always clear to me, its stranglehod on my thinking seems to be lessening. It's easier to just sit quietly, and easier not to indulge conflict when it appears. Truly wanting peace - and making peace with that truth - has been more work than I expected, but I'm deeply grateful.
"Neti, neti" as our friends in another tradition say, even unto "neti neti" itself :)
Hope all is well - thank you for reading & being here!
Thank You for this Beautiful illustration 🙏
Thank you Sean 🙏
thank you 🙏🏼
Fantastic, this ties into my teachings that I am learning now. Thank you so much. Peace Brother.
You're welcome 🙏 And peace to you as well. Thank you for being here.
~ Sean
Thank you so much for this. To keep our minds pure from the fear of the world and of each other is to know God's love, our certain safety and everlasting bliss. I especially appreciated the reminded that we have no place to escape to, we carry this in our minds and hearts and all we must do is awaken to it! It is such a privilege to know this and to relax into it and not let anything or anybody distract us from Christ and His Vision. So appreciate the other comments as well. So than you for this forum in which to share.
Thank you for reading and sharing Eckie . . . Yes the emphasis on giving attention in a devoted way, in not being distracted, is so helpful . . . All is given and we will remember this as soon as we are willing . . . Thank you again 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Beautifully written. l loved the chapter in the text about the Lilies.
The daily news is such a horror story that l stopped watching it and don't miss it at all. Having not seen it for a while, the toxicity of the ego personalities is even more startling, glaring and painful to watch and listen to than it was when l made the decision to stop watching it, as it is now more apparent than ever. Forgiveness can be a type of spiritual practice while watching the news, knowing that the truth of people is perfect despite the crazy ego's masquerading across the screens.
l like your final words about suffering being an illusion that might be undone, when we live the truth of God's love. Your writing sets a fine example and is one way of doing just this.
Jayney
Thank you Jayney. Yeah, the horror show of the news - really, the horror show wherever I turn, if I'm being honest.
And yet :)
I find - as I think you find - the decision to seek peace, as in literally setting an intention, and then being present to it with all my heart and mind - seems to create these openings through which love pours, healing the fear that gives rise to the nightmare.
So less attention give to screens and the stories playing out on them, and more attention to the garden, the bees, the apple blossoms, the horses, the river and the trees, et cetera. That world too includes elements of suffering and sacrifice (how could it not) and yet there I remember to remember what I once swore to forget.
Friends help, too :) So thank you Jayney, for being here so thoughtfully 🙏🙏
Love,
Sean
Thank you for this Sean. “…let us ask to be reminded of that shared love.” “Reminded.” What you’ve shared this morning reminds me that there is nothing for me or for any of us to “obtain” to “become” whole. We are already whole. Perhaps this entire bodily experience is simply a process of being awakened to what we’ve forgotten?
I went to a retreat last weekend and the theme was
“A spirituality of subtraction,” based on this same idea. On this earthly journey (or whatever it is!), I’m not seeking that which can make me holy, but instead letting go of everything that keeps me from the awareness that I AM holy. How freeing is that? This seems like the ultimate shift in perception to me.
Richard Rohr has a great book called “Falling Upward” where he posits a similar idea - that we spend the first half of our lives building this container around us - this image of ourselves that we want to protect (ego) and at the same time project to the world, and we spend the second half of our lives breaking it down, letting these false, ego-centered ideas go and awakening to who we are in Christ. He’s clear that these “halves” are not chronological - that he has met young children in cancer wards already in the second half, and seniors still stuck in the first “half.”
It made me think about the fact that when I came into this world as a baby, I had no concept of jealousy, or lack, or “mine” (at least until my first time at the breast😊). All these ultimately false ideas have been picked up along the way. Perhaps my primary task here is to let them go - again, not to become something I’m not, but to awaken to who I already am. Thank you Sean!
Thank you, Mark. Yeah, the bit about the stages of liberation/awakening/etc not being necessarily yoked to the body's chronology feels important to me. It humbles me. And it does seem to help shift the focus of healing away from some specific locus with which I prefer to identify.
I find some of Ken Wilber's work in this domain (notably Up from Eden and The Atman Project) to be helpful as well. I am not as familiar with Rohr, but his name comes up a lot. I need more time for all the reading I long to do (and would definitely be helped by) :)
I am comforted knowing that there is nothing to do but remember, and comforted as well - especially as I get older - by realizing that what obstructs memory is, in ACIM terms, ego. For reasons that are not always clear to me, its stranglehod on my thinking seems to be lessening. It's easier to just sit quietly, and easier not to indulge conflict when it appears. Truly wanting peace - and making peace with that truth - has been more work than I expected, but I'm deeply grateful.
"Neti, neti" as our friends in another tradition say, even unto "neti neti" itself :)
Hope all is well - thank you for reading & being here!
Sean