I AM GOLDEN PEACE

 

 

July 25, 2010

A poem called Crabby Old Man is making the e-mail circuits. And certainly the request to be seen as a person was heartfelt by the anonymous author. Yet it gave me pause to think: Do we really see ourselves as our memories and/or our experiences? Surely we know that we are so much more.

A few lines:

What do you see nurses? What do you see?
What are you thinking, when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, not very wise, uncertain of habit,with faraway eyes? ...I'm a small child of Ten, with a father and mother...A young boy of Sixteen, with wings on his feet...A groom soon at Twenty, my heart gives a leap...At Twenty-Five, now I have young of my own...At Forty, my young sons, have grown and are gone...At Fifty, once more, babies play 'round my knee...So open your eyes, people. Open and see.
Not a crabby old man. Look closer. See ME!!

That which is me is vastly more than my memories and experiences, which are fleeting at best. I am far more than anyone sees when they look at me, far more than the people who know me best see. How do we get beyond our own stuff to truly see a person and what can you actually glimpse? I'm leaps and bounds more than I have revealed to myself or opened up to yet, more than I have begun to realize. What I'm trying to say is that each and everyone of us has infinite potential that we are unbelievably unconscious of. How can we see it in others if we can't see it in ourselves? Typically when I look at a person, I see face value of what they are willing to reveal at that moment, or I see how I emotionally respond to them. I need to look deeper at people when I meet them.

July 19, 2010

Frame of reference. For years I've been attempting to organize my house better and been largely unsuccessful. I invited a professional organizer to come help me put my house in order. Even though it was a 4 hour session, she didn't actually do much more than offer a few tricks of the trade. Yet, there was a huge difference when she left. Even though I set the goals and I would do all the work, she helped me see that it was in deed possible. She provided that frame of reference that let me make the decision to make it happen. I wonder if this is similar to what is meant when it's said that we provide a spiritual frame of reference just by our being and the way we approach situations.

July 18, 2010

These aren't my words. I pray that the purity, love and freedom with which they were spoken may also bless your heart. - Let go of the sorrow so that what might have been can BE. Tune in and lock in to what has been preserved. - Each time the sadness threatens, I choose joy.

July 14, 2010

More on the wisdom of not declaring enemies.  I still call them “the monstrous men,” although it was their actions that were monstrous.  Yet they are not enemies, even though they are still a “them.”  Perhaps I can even move beyond that.  They were devoted to hate and rage and inflicting this upon children.  Some of the children also chose to take on patterns of hate and rage.  Perhaps some, like me, were tasked with holding the immaculate concept and were victorious.  It was my task to remember thru all the heinous crimes that at least some of these men still have a spark of light in them.  They have the option at any moment to choose to turn their lives around, to make different choices, to stop spilling the blood of the innocents.  Regardless of their actions they were created children of God and they can remember that, if they will.  They’ll have forgiveness the same as any of us; even if they do have to deal with reaping what they have sown, the same as any of us.  I’m sure there are details beyond the scope of this paragraph.  The point is that I was victorious because I didn’t allow myself to consider them enemies.  I focused on the fact that any one can start their path back to alignment with the divine.  It didn’t help with the perceptions of harm or the anger, but it did help me survive and stand victorious in not taking hate or rage into my heart.  I also focused on my love for God, even though they tried ever so persistently to rob me of it.  During the healing process of facing the memories I once yelled if I have to praise God from the pit of hell, then so be it.  Then I started singing.  It helped me take quite a leap out of despair at the time and it still gives me a chuckle.

I wouldn’t mind seeing these men brought to justice or even executed, because it’s the spirit that can make the choice at any time.  But it really has no meaning in the scheme of things, unless it helps move us beyond the consciousness that allows this or helps that person turn and face the responsibility for their actions.  And we are moving beyond it.  Many, many things are contributing.  People in general are less willing to ignore signs of abuse.  My medical doctor even misdiagnosed me, rather than try to explain to my parents what he suspected.  Regardless of whether this was conscious or intentional, most medical doctors today wouldn’t even consider it because of rather new laws.  Many more children today are seen and heard.  Most children are not taught to be quiet and invisible anymore.  Unfortunately their freedom to roam free has been curtailed since so many parents now are more aware of needing to know where their children are and who they are with and what they are doing.  Yet, of course, the monstrous men were trusted pillars of the community; so we still need to learn more on this.  Never the less, we are in deed approaching a time when these heinous crimes will not be able to be hidden and then the fact that they are not acceptable will push them closer to oblivion.  Just as our susceptibility to making wars fades into oblivion as we choose to refuse to declare any “them” an enemy.

July 13, 2010

One person with a gun hands another person a gun and says: Shoot that third person, or I’ll shoot you.  The second person lays the gun down and says:  If you want the third person shot, do it yourself.  If you want me shot you are responsible for that.  I do not accept your responsibility.  One person says believe you are not pure or I will steal your light.  Shall I respond with I fear you will steal my light and in that fear I am impure.  NO!  I refuse to be less.  If you wish to believe yourself impure and in need of stealing light that is your choice.  I refuse to join you.  And actually I see the light in you.  I am one with that light in you.  You can choose to accept your own light at any time.  I refuse to be less.  I am pure.

July 11, 2010

Another teaching event this week came from a false premise.  This engineer spent close to a half hour explaining something to me and I could not apply it.  He said the same thing in a couple different ways (usually an effective technique), but none of his explanations found the root of my problem in understanding.  We tested a cable.  One report of the data said the cable was good.  In a different report the same data indicated the cable failed (or so it looked to me).  He kept trying to say it was the precision of the data that made the difference and I could not understand when it was the same data.  I kept thinking that the data had to be being modified somehow in the second report, or that the allowable tolerance was more restrictive.  I didn’t possess the key piece of information that years ago someone had made very precise measurements of a similar cable using a different test set up.  All the second report did was compare the current data to those precise measurements, indicating where the current test set up was yielding questionable data.  He kept saying the data wasn’t showing whether the cable was good or bad; yet since that was the purpose of the data, I just couldn’t understand – until I got the key piece of information.  The teaching being that no amount of explanation was going to penetrate until I figured out my block and removed it, until I found the key.  This happened when we both looked at the second report and I made a couple of false statements and he patiently thru his headache persisted in trying to explain and in his explanation I eventually saw what I had misidentified and then it all suddenly made perfect sense.  There is a lot being said today about the time being ripe and people being able to awaken to a higher consciousness in the blink of an eye.  This was a small illustration of just how possible it is on other levels and with far more important keys.  We just need to persistently apply ourselves to looking for and finding those keys.

July 10, 2010

Chocolate  Lip
One teaching event this week came from seeing chocolate on the lip of an engineer I work with.  He was just out of a meeting where he had been on somewhat of a hot seat and I was teasing about them having given him a bloody lip, even though I could see the chocolate bar in his hand.  The teasing let him know it was there and he wiped half of it off.  I let him know there was still some and when I saw him again it was still there.  The teaching in this silliness was this.  I looked at him and what was outside of my ordinary experience jumped to my attention.  Then I began to fixate on it and had to consciously drag my attention from it.  Yet at no time did I identify him with what I saw.  I didn’t make any assumptions about his character.  Now you may agree this is silly, but don’t we do this.  Some people see a person dragging a leg and project a mental deficiency on them.  People see someone with a different color skin and start fixating on stuff that has nothing to do with the person.  We look at a religion or culture or action and try to define the person by it; when it is really no more than a chocolate lip.  Yes, how very silly.  And why did I care whether he wiped it off or not.  Because it drew my attention and I felt required to consciously expend energy to focus my attention on what he was saying.  So it was easier and quicker to have him remove the distraction, than for me to think wow later I need to look at what my response says about me.  Again it was only chocolate, but isn’t it better to learn from tiny things?  Diversity teaches.

July 8, 2010

More on turning the other cheek.  Last year an event led to difficult (for me) financial negotiations.  In preparation I asked the head loan officer at my credit union what she considers most important prior to intense financial negotiations.  She said to convince herself that she already has the outcome she desires.  That this attitude will help her stand firm and accept no less.  I wasn’t able to manifest this in my own negotiations at the time.  But I do have an appreciation.  I sense there is something similar in the wisdom of turning the other cheek.  I sense that a person needs to know who they are and where they stand and what is real.

I sense that the attitude of turning the other cheek is not passive.  It is active.  It is a willful changing direction.  A refusing to go where someone or some set of circumstances is leading.  There is a recognition that what is in the heart will not be affected by situations in the material world.  Some would say it is staying in Oneness and out of duality.  It seems like a person would need to be centered and fully present, but perhaps I’m placing way too many conditions on something that is probably quite simple.  Coming from the view of my past concepts of turning the other cheek, it seems odd to use terms like immovable and unyielding.  Yet, somehow it seems to have to do with demonstrating a consciousness in an immovable manner that what is being presented actually has no affect on what is real.

At the same time I say all this I also suspect that the meaning of turning the other cheek is not only full of varied layers and degrees; but also a creative meaning, where each individual helps create or expose a new facet as we experiment in small things and experiment again

July 7, 2010

I don’t have this straight yet, but it seemed appropriate to post it to encourage others to think about it also.  The subject is turning the other cheek.  I’m trying to internalize the true meaning of this.  In some ways I’ve demonstrated it.  I know this inwardly, even though outwardly I can’t quite define it.  In some ways I balk at it intellectually, because I have this false view of it meaning to let evil get away with anything.  In my heart I know the wisdom of turning the other cheek goes far beyond any concepts of good and evil.  Long ago I surprised myself by voicing to someone that it didn’t matter what circumstances you faced, it mattered how you choice to respond.  Even longer ago when there were some people trying to force me into various actions, it was important to me to NOT respond in the ways they demanded or expected.  Sometimes I would stand quiet, contemplating what would surprise them.  Now I see in this tactic that it is still “responding” and that it requires separating myself from a “them” and it still allows “them” to define my response.  So this tactic does not describe spontaneously acting from one’s higher self and never re-acting.  Vaguely it seems that turning the other cheek is not reacting or responding, but it could be I’m trying to put some sort of neutrality on it that Jesus might not have intended.

July 3, 2010

In looking for news of world peace I found this website http://www.wopg.org/ for Words of Peace Global.  I’ve been waiting to make this posting until I could get time to listen to the filmstrip.

It’s amazing to me how many renditions of words I have been thru figuring out what to say here.  First, I was looking for a source for articles about actions thru out the world contributing to establishing more peace in volatile areas.  The most recent 10 articles at this site turned out to be about Prem Rawat and gatherings to listen to him talk.  So if anyone has any suggestions on a source for news, I’m still looking.

What I watched of the filmstrip and read at the website seemed to indicate that this man recruits people to spread his message.  This message appeared to me to be a truthful one of:  Inner peace comes from accepting the joy of living.  I didn’t see any tools (although I haven’t been thru “The Keys” yet) to help people with what he calls the undoing.  And I did see red flags associated with big business evangelism.  So I don’t endorse this website, I simply present it for you to take or leave what you wish (as with all things).

 

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