Sometimes the only thing that helps me get past any difficult problem - an unexpected nasty surprise that first hurts my heart and then sends me scrambling for metaphysical relief - is to first remember my ego wants me to take it very seriously. I try to lighten up and remember that everything is the same (a helpful guy recently provided a useful visual aid of 4 photos of 4 different dumbbells weighing the same). I am soothed to know that no matter what it is - because it is experienced in space/time - it will change or disappear - and if I see it properly (as my own projection) - I have faith and some evidence that it heals on the level where it counts. It is a practice. It is simple. May I be honest? It is hard. It can make me wonder if I can really get anywhere. Am I naive to hope that one day my first response won’t be to gasp in unexpected pain first - but rather to see it, as it is incoming, for what it is - and to smile and keep on loving....
For what's worth the phrase "faith and some evidence" is fantastic . . .
At the level of the body and the world, I don't think we get more than the illusion of progress or improvement. We get a little better over time at allowing the miracle its space, at remembering to listen to the Holy Spirit, at extending lovingkindness, or this or that. It IS a practice, which DOES bring the whole specter of time and space and materiality into the picture. Thus, in a way, our "practice" ends up reinforcing the very circumstances it was made to undo.
A lot of my grief and suffering - even perhaps all of it - arises from my belief in the separated self, and my attempt to take seriously (often under the guise of spiritual healing) its apparent problems.
This means that I am looking for the end of suffering in the very context that was made to make suffering real. This is an impossible situation! And seeing it AS impossible can take a long long time.
Yet when it at last is seen for the vicious circle it is, then actual healing finally becomes possible because we stop looking for it where it can not be found. Love, inner peace, wholeness . . . these are not found in the world. Therefore, to a body in the world, they will never be more than brief hints, tantalizing tastes. They will remain forever in the domain of aspiration and ideal.
But to Spirit, problems and solutions aren't real, and so healing is simple: it consists of the realization that it isn't necessary at all.
When Spirit's view becomes our view - which is the same thing as saying, when we remember what we are in truth - then even the appearance of problems won't distress us. They'll be like a picture of a train - captivating in its way but hardly capable of getting us anywhere.
Sometimes the only thing that helps me get past any difficult problem - an unexpected nasty surprise that first hurts my heart and then sends me scrambling for metaphysical relief - is to first remember my ego wants me to take it very seriously. I try to lighten up and remember that everything is the same (a helpful guy recently provided a useful visual aid of 4 photos of 4 different dumbbells weighing the same). I am soothed to know that no matter what it is - because it is experienced in space/time - it will change or disappear - and if I see it properly (as my own projection) - I have faith and some evidence that it heals on the level where it counts. It is a practice. It is simple. May I be honest? It is hard. It can make me wonder if I can really get anywhere. Am I naive to hope that one day my first response won’t be to gasp in unexpected pain first - but rather to see it, as it is incoming, for what it is - and to smile and keep on loving....
For what's worth the phrase "faith and some evidence" is fantastic . . .
At the level of the body and the world, I don't think we get more than the illusion of progress or improvement. We get a little better over time at allowing the miracle its space, at remembering to listen to the Holy Spirit, at extending lovingkindness, or this or that. It IS a practice, which DOES bring the whole specter of time and space and materiality into the picture. Thus, in a way, our "practice" ends up reinforcing the very circumstances it was made to undo.
A lot of my grief and suffering - even perhaps all of it - arises from my belief in the separated self, and my attempt to take seriously (often under the guise of spiritual healing) its apparent problems.
This means that I am looking for the end of suffering in the very context that was made to make suffering real. This is an impossible situation! And seeing it AS impossible can take a long long time.
Yet when it at last is seen for the vicious circle it is, then actual healing finally becomes possible because we stop looking for it where it can not be found. Love, inner peace, wholeness . . . these are not found in the world. Therefore, to a body in the world, they will never be more than brief hints, tantalizing tastes. They will remain forever in the domain of aspiration and ideal.
But to Spirit, problems and solutions aren't real, and so healing is simple: it consists of the realization that it isn't necessary at all.
When Spirit's view becomes our view - which is the same thing as saying, when we remember what we are in truth - then even the appearance of problems won't distress us. They'll be like a picture of a train - captivating in its way but hardly capable of getting us anywhere.
Great reminders and mnemonics. That train isn't taking me anywhere! Lol.