Sipping from the river of God’s healing presence and living from your knees is a powerful image of what I would call surrender and what you might call submission. But it feels like an act of worship, a prayer, and ultimately, consent, which I do believe is a conscious way of letting go of judgement. The connection to rhythms and the natural world in order to synchronize to the cadence of God’s Love and to find stillness inside of the Holy Instant is very beautiful and helpful. Thank you.🌸💕
Thank you Kimberley. This is a really clear and helpful sharing. Worship and prayer, yes, and absolutely yes to consent - I think that's a really fundamental concept in our spiritual practice. Consenting to a new relationship with God in which we are going to be transformed in ways that might feel scary at first. Love is no joke.
Increasingly I am languaging this stuff in terms of a "stillness practice." What gets you to the silence that is not merely the absence of sound? What brings you to the stillness that is our shared source?
Today's posting came in perfect timing for me. It falls right in line with a tiny diary by Frank Laubach that I just came across prior to reading your entry: https://conversatio.org/awareness-game-with-minutes/
He was a missionary and mystic during the early 20th century. He did an experiment that turned his whole life around by deciding to incorporate thinking of God continously.
With it, he experienced an ever presense sense of God. He outlined ideas on how to proceed in a pamphlet called, The Game with Minutes. It gives a myriad of ways to think and act in God's presence. I am applying it now as I ask God to key in my comment here but not before asking the HS to make me truly helpful. At the same time, I envision Jesus sitting beside me. I invite everyone to join me in developing this beautiful habit. As we are already doing, as Course students, let's continue to bless everyone in our path and in our thoughts, send them God’s Love and turn our world back to heaven. I love and appreciate you, Sean, and all others here and beyond! 💞 🙏
Thank you, Jeannie. I am not familiar with Laubach, but will take a look. In any case, yes, being present in simple ways - God's presence, healing, love, offer of connection is all here, awaiting our yes, our attention, our acceptance. It is so much easier than it seems.
Thank you for your kinds words, your helpful sharing, and for being here 🙏🙏
I am in AWE as if I have just seen a breath taking sunrise, after reading your offering. The joy and expansiveness of your words touched me deeply. I felt as if I was beyond the limited ego structure. 🙏
Thank you Sean. Your words awakened in me the answer to why I seek out the natural world be it the blooming flowers in my garden and the bees that visit them or the walk at the nearby river where the unexpected sight of an eagle or jump of a salmon fills me with peace and Oneness. Decades ago I had spent time in silent retreats at the Redwoods Monastery. It deepened my prayers of gratitude sipping tea made from the bark of the madrones that grow there. We need the wild untamed world to keep us connected.🙏
Thank you for sharing April . . . yes, the bees - they are such magnificent creatures . . . we have a lot of flowers here as well - some wild, some cultivated - and the bee (and butterfly) visitors are steady and lovely. There are so many ways to be happy and being in relationship with other critters is one of my favorites . . .
Also, I'm so glad to hear that about the Redwoods Monastery! It's been a long time since I've ready Merton but I've been revisiting some of his work (because I'm revisiting some of the Buddhist writers that I was tracking in my early twenties) and that really leaped out at me.
Sean, once again, as I read this piece I kept having the thought: “This is the best thing he’s written yet!” Ha! But honestly, I don’t know how it can be that very nearly everything I read from you feels so appropriate to our moment. And the poetry throughout this one invites me to return to and reabsorb it, and I will. Picturing your teacups filling with moonlight brings me such peace. I could go on. It’s a lovely reflection. Thank you.
Sean, thank you for this beautiful offering today. I love the contemplative life! I have discovered that God makes "his" presence known whenever I least expect it...but it happens when I am giving/feeling pure love. The love that I am giving to "another" encompasses me. It is sudden, intense and crystal clear. I am no longer a seeker; everything is here waiting for me to notice. What else could I need?
There is nothing to seek and everything to simply accept, notice, attend . . . that's the secret that's always right in front of us . . . Thanks Susan, I'm so glad you're here - very grateful we share this path 🙏🙏
I never feel more at home in your words than when you sound like a direct descendant of one of my own spiritual godmothers (Sister Emily). Something about this profoundly poetic post also reminded me of part of a verse I came across recently in the Tao te Ching (which I’m finding to be a similarly compelling invitation to “a better way”:
“release your grip on all you have and everything that matters will become yours.” Thanks for keeping your heart open, Sean. “Moonlight in teacups” . . . Priceless.
Thanks, Dan - I'm glad you're here and hope all is well with you.
Yeah, the Tao Te Ching is good food for the hungry. It's been interesting over the years reading the different translations, how each opens the content up in a new way. It reminds me fundamentally of the creativity inherent in holiness and love, the way that it is a process rather than event, and that we all share in it.
Yeah, moonlight in teacups - part of the practice for sure.
Sipping from the river of God’s healing presence and living from your knees is a powerful image of what I would call surrender and what you might call submission. But it feels like an act of worship, a prayer, and ultimately, consent, which I do believe is a conscious way of letting go of judgement. The connection to rhythms and the natural world in order to synchronize to the cadence of God’s Love and to find stillness inside of the Holy Instant is very beautiful and helpful. Thank you.🌸💕
Thank you Kimberley. This is a really clear and helpful sharing. Worship and prayer, yes, and absolutely yes to consent - I think that's a really fundamental concept in our spiritual practice. Consenting to a new relationship with God in which we are going to be transformed in ways that might feel scary at first. Love is no joke.
Increasingly I am languaging this stuff in terms of a "stillness practice." What gets you to the silence that is not merely the absence of sound? What brings you to the stillness that is our shared source?
Thanks again - some of those phrases echo 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Bless you, Sean.
Today's posting came in perfect timing for me. It falls right in line with a tiny diary by Frank Laubach that I just came across prior to reading your entry: https://conversatio.org/awareness-game-with-minutes/
He was a missionary and mystic during the early 20th century. He did an experiment that turned his whole life around by deciding to incorporate thinking of God continously.
With it, he experienced an ever presense sense of God. He outlined ideas on how to proceed in a pamphlet called, The Game with Minutes. It gives a myriad of ways to think and act in God's presence. I am applying it now as I ask God to key in my comment here but not before asking the HS to make me truly helpful. At the same time, I envision Jesus sitting beside me. I invite everyone to join me in developing this beautiful habit. As we are already doing, as Course students, let's continue to bless everyone in our path and in our thoughts, send them God’s Love and turn our world back to heaven. I love and appreciate you, Sean, and all others here and beyond! 💞 🙏
Thank you, Jeannie. I am not familiar with Laubach, but will take a look. In any case, yes, being present in simple ways - God's presence, healing, love, offer of connection is all here, awaiting our yes, our attention, our acceptance. It is so much easier than it seems.
Thank you for your kinds words, your helpful sharing, and for being here 🙏🙏
~ Sean
I am in AWE as if I have just seen a breath taking sunrise, after reading your offering. The joy and expansiveness of your words touched me deeply. I felt as if I was beyond the limited ego structure. 🙏
🙏🙏
Thank you Sean. Your words awakened in me the answer to why I seek out the natural world be it the blooming flowers in my garden and the bees that visit them or the walk at the nearby river where the unexpected sight of an eagle or jump of a salmon fills me with peace and Oneness. Decades ago I had spent time in silent retreats at the Redwoods Monastery. It deepened my prayers of gratitude sipping tea made from the bark of the madrones that grow there. We need the wild untamed world to keep us connected.🙏
Thank you for sharing April . . . yes, the bees - they are such magnificent creatures . . . we have a lot of flowers here as well - some wild, some cultivated - and the bee (and butterfly) visitors are steady and lovely. There are so many ways to be happy and being in relationship with other critters is one of my favorites . . .
Also, I'm so glad to hear that about the Redwoods Monastery! It's been a long time since I've ready Merton but I've been revisiting some of his work (because I'm revisiting some of the Buddhist writers that I was tracking in my early twenties) and that really leaped out at me.
Thanks for being here 🙏🙏
~ Sean
This calls to me so strongly.
🙏🙏
Thank you so much, Sean. How beautiful! I am filled with joy when I read what you have shared.
With love.
🙏🙏
Sean, once again, as I read this piece I kept having the thought: “This is the best thing he’s written yet!” Ha! But honestly, I don’t know how it can be that very nearly everything I read from you feels so appropriate to our moment. And the poetry throughout this one invites me to return to and reabsorb it, and I will. Picturing your teacups filling with moonlight brings me such peace. I could go on. It’s a lovely reflection. Thank you.
You're welcome, Margaret. Thanks for reading and sharing. The teacup full of Moonlight is a lot of fun. I swear a little stays in the cup!
thanks again 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Giving attention is a form of prayer.”
🙏🙏
Sean, thank you for this beautiful offering today. I love the contemplative life! I have discovered that God makes "his" presence known whenever I least expect it...but it happens when I am giving/feeling pure love. The love that I am giving to "another" encompasses me. It is sudden, intense and crystal clear. I am no longer a seeker; everything is here waiting for me to notice. What else could I need?
There is nothing to seek and everything to simply accept, notice, attend . . . that's the secret that's always right in front of us . . . Thanks Susan, I'm so glad you're here - very grateful we share this path 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Magnificent.
🙏🙏
Thanks Sean!
And thanks for underlining the posts within the post. I enjoy and appreciate your work.
You're welcome, Mike! Thanks for being here and sharing 🙏🙏
~ Sean
I never feel more at home in your words than when you sound like a direct descendant of one of my own spiritual godmothers (Sister Emily). Something about this profoundly poetic post also reminded me of part of a verse I came across recently in the Tao te Ching (which I’m finding to be a similarly compelling invitation to “a better way”:
“release your grip on all you have and everything that matters will become yours.” Thanks for keeping your heart open, Sean. “Moonlight in teacups” . . . Priceless.
Thanks, Dan - I'm glad you're here and hope all is well with you.
Yeah, the Tao Te Ching is good food for the hungry. It's been interesting over the years reading the different translations, how each opens the content up in a new way. It reminds me fundamentally of the creativity inherent in holiness and love, the way that it is a process rather than event, and that we all share in it.
Yeah, moonlight in teacups - part of the practice for sure.
~ Sean
Thank you
🙏🙏