I've had a big story around flossing. Of course no one would want to hear it. But like all that can be repurposed to speak around/about the Truth, even it has equal pertinence! Only for the last few years have I "just flossed", not avoiding or making myself or going through more years of "ugh don't like this" (or trying to make myself not do that, lol). I still "notice the absence" of all that, happily (obviously! thank you for providing more opportunity for that, big lol). But that's the pertinent point I wanted to bring up. It's that we don't actually get cudos for doing what is finally not doer-ized. The duality mode is just stuck jumping from side to side! - negativity stick or alluring carrot. A stillness where there's not a quest-ion about it just isn't ... well it just isn't'!, and certaintly not understanble for how it's going to make flossing happen or redeem why I didn't. But this story is available to parrallel how God (already a word too far) CAN be talked ab-out. The same principles can be recognized and honored in a way, a happier dreaming time, with the fables and fairy tales and flossing metaphors. It's not bad to not be still! But that CAN'T be "said"! It doesn't make sense to that to which non-stillness seems to be a real thing. And it wants to be told to be still, or why it's ok not to be (but is just pissed off for what to it is "pandering" - from it's unquiet perspective). After the Commandments and all other spiritual "saids", there's quite a quiet in the success of their failures. To finally be the one "who didn't fail" (and so why there was "success" in THAT), is great food for stillness. If I may not be Still "yet" (lol), I can talk ab-out it - because it is NOT bad (I just can't say it directly, we have to talk ar-out it, more lol). And we can share this with each other, be able to relate over it because we ARE the relating that understands. And I find I Am - still - at the center of all this story-ing anyway, with a wonderful friend, who repurposes for me "not feeling bad (nor "good") about not flossing"! It was wonderful to find the newsletter in my mailbox (there not having been some of your other dailies recently)! Thank you for relating.
God as a word too far . . . that'll be with me for a while :)
Mike thanks for this comment - I've been mulling it for the past day or so . . . I read you as a reflection of the clarity/cloudiness in my own self . . . this comment confounded me :)
So to muddy the waters further . . .
Recently, in another setting, I wrote that living is "context all the way down" and "stances all the way out."
From the perspective of the particular observer I am, I cannot be free of context (even "free of context" is a "context", there is always something going on), and contexts require stances (Jesus saves, all is one, it's just physics, come to stillness etc).
Some of the older texts to which I sometimes turn suggest that the oneness/stillness/that-of-which-we-cannot-speak/one-without-another/etc is simply another context and stance. They are yet another sign but one that masquerades as "no-sign."
And the risk is - reaching this apparent signlessness - about which we cannot speak and yet somehow manage to go on speaking about - that we will accept this as The End of Seeking and not go the further step into the void, abyss, desert, lonesome valley etc.
In his first letter to the Corinthians Saint Paul made the observation - I am paraphrasing wildly - that the cross, the crucifixion - destroyed the utility of signs. It confounds rational thought, it points to what cannot be true . . .
It is a grim and bloody koan.
Anyway . . . it is my sense that one can - in the separated state which ACIM rightly laments - become aware of the one life beyond all appearances, about which we CAN speak and that this one life points to something poorly represented by words like "God" and "Abyss" and "Void" about which we can NOT speak but CAN know. Maybe?
I really really want there to be no mysteries or secrets :)
I struggled with flossing for years - my fear around teeth and dentists is pathological - and then one day it was okay, and I don't even know why! So maybe it was a miracle :)
Truly loved reading this today - I asked to understand “Be Still and Know I AM God,” in a fuller sense and you’ve delivered that here. Many thanks and blessings Sean. Thank you, Anna 💖🙏🏻💖🌟🕊💐
Great one! Love how you break things down. So very easy to understand.
I've had a big story around flossing. Of course no one would want to hear it. But like all that can be repurposed to speak around/about the Truth, even it has equal pertinence! Only for the last few years have I "just flossed", not avoiding or making myself or going through more years of "ugh don't like this" (or trying to make myself not do that, lol). I still "notice the absence" of all that, happily (obviously! thank you for providing more opportunity for that, big lol). But that's the pertinent point I wanted to bring up. It's that we don't actually get cudos for doing what is finally not doer-ized. The duality mode is just stuck jumping from side to side! - negativity stick or alluring carrot. A stillness where there's not a quest-ion about it just isn't ... well it just isn't'!, and certaintly not understanble for how it's going to make flossing happen or redeem why I didn't. But this story is available to parrallel how God (already a word too far) CAN be talked ab-out. The same principles can be recognized and honored in a way, a happier dreaming time, with the fables and fairy tales and flossing metaphors. It's not bad to not be still! But that CAN'T be "said"! It doesn't make sense to that to which non-stillness seems to be a real thing. And it wants to be told to be still, or why it's ok not to be (but is just pissed off for what to it is "pandering" - from it's unquiet perspective). After the Commandments and all other spiritual "saids", there's quite a quiet in the success of their failures. To finally be the one "who didn't fail" (and so why there was "success" in THAT), is great food for stillness. If I may not be Still "yet" (lol), I can talk ab-out it - because it is NOT bad (I just can't say it directly, we have to talk ar-out it, more lol). And we can share this with each other, be able to relate over it because we ARE the relating that understands. And I find I Am - still - at the center of all this story-ing anyway, with a wonderful friend, who repurposes for me "not feeling bad (nor "good") about not flossing"! It was wonderful to find the newsletter in my mailbox (there not having been some of your other dailies recently)! Thank you for relating.
God as a word too far . . . that'll be with me for a while :)
Mike thanks for this comment - I've been mulling it for the past day or so . . . I read you as a reflection of the clarity/cloudiness in my own self . . . this comment confounded me :)
So to muddy the waters further . . .
Recently, in another setting, I wrote that living is "context all the way down" and "stances all the way out."
From the perspective of the particular observer I am, I cannot be free of context (even "free of context" is a "context", there is always something going on), and contexts require stances (Jesus saves, all is one, it's just physics, come to stillness etc).
Some of the older texts to which I sometimes turn suggest that the oneness/stillness/that-of-which-we-cannot-speak/one-without-another/etc is simply another context and stance. They are yet another sign but one that masquerades as "no-sign."
And the risk is - reaching this apparent signlessness - about which we cannot speak and yet somehow manage to go on speaking about - that we will accept this as The End of Seeking and not go the further step into the void, abyss, desert, lonesome valley etc.
In his first letter to the Corinthians Saint Paul made the observation - I am paraphrasing wildly - that the cross, the crucifixion - destroyed the utility of signs. It confounds rational thought, it points to what cannot be true . . .
It is a grim and bloody koan.
Anyway . . . it is my sense that one can - in the separated state which ACIM rightly laments - become aware of the one life beyond all appearances, about which we CAN speak and that this one life points to something poorly represented by words like "God" and "Abyss" and "Void" about which we can NOT speak but CAN know. Maybe?
I really really want there to be no mysteries or secrets :)
I struggled with flossing for years - my fear around teeth and dentists is pathological - and then one day it was okay, and I don't even know why! So maybe it was a miracle :)
Thank you again for sharing, Mike.
~ Sean
Thank you for this article Sean. Your thoughts make me think.
Thank you Deb 🙏
Truly loved reading this today - I asked to understand “Be Still and Know I AM God,” in a fuller sense and you’ve delivered that here. Many thanks and blessings Sean. Thank you, Anna 💖🙏🏻💖🌟🕊💐
I'm glad it was helpful, Anna. Thank you so much for reading and sharing 🙏
Thanks, Sean! Beautiful post! 👍♥️
Thank you Wayne :) Hope all is well with you and your family