Part 2 - Staying in the Is-Ness and Letting the Future Take Care of Itself

Continued from Part 1

How do we deal with “the future?” Can we deal with the future at all? Is to deal with the future a negation of the Truths that guide our spiritual life – a negation of the axiom “Live in the Now” for Now is always eternal?

A sense of ownership – I possess therefore I am. A sense of being responsible for what I have. A sense of having – and then needing to worry about keeping and maintaining. The unspoken premise? There isn’t really enough. Maybe all that’s what takes the edge off simply enjoying the Now – living in the “is-ness.” I am trying to de-clutter my mind and get back to where the Aborigines have always been. They are supposed to be ignorant, uneducated natives who just happen to be happy and at peace. Yet, I am supposed to be smart and sophisticated and competitive and forward-thinking. But I am stressed, worried, and can’t sleep many nights.

So, how do we deal with “the future?” Can we deal with the future at all? Is to deal with the future a negation of the Truths that guide our spiritual life – a negation of the axiom “Live in the Now” for Now is always eternal?

What I try to do is simply imagine the worst thing the future might bring, deal with it in my mind, and then go about my business. In short, I try to deal with it and be done with it. Sometimes this really works. Sometimes it really doesn’t.

I am also attempting to apply the principles of AA to my spiritual growth. Another AA adage states: “Just for today, don’t drink, go to a meeting, share openly and honestly, work the Steps, talk to your sponsor, pray, and the rest of your life is none of your business.” Within the structure of ACIM’s wisdom I can apply a similar approach: Just for today, read and practice the daily lesson in the Course Workbook, read a passage from the Course Text or the Manual for Teachers, remember that I am not what I think and I don’t have to believe everything I think, remember that I am responsible for not paying attention to the chatter in my mind, remember I am not upset for the reason I think, and remember the Holy Spirit will always give me another way of looking at people or  events, if I truly ask and then listen for His whispered answer.

With practice, a little discipline, and perseverance perhaps I can become a 21^st Century Tennessee Aborigine – simple, focused, happy, joyous and free.

Thanks for listening, and – as always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family and those accompanying you on your spiritual path.

Don

#3 July, 2012

PS: I will be on the road for the next several weeks, so there will be no messages for a couple of weeks.

Part 1 - Staying in the Is-Ness and Letting the Future Take Care of Itself

How do we deal with “the future?” Can we deal with the future at all? Is to deal with the future a negation of the Truths that guide our spiritual life – a negation of the axiom “Live in the Now” for Now is always eternal?

The Course in Miracles says there are only two primary states of existence: Love and Fear. Love is of God and Fear is of my ego. Love is what is real – I am an already-loved eternal spirit having a human experience. Fear (or Ego perception) is an unreal projection of my mind that continuously tells me I am a body with a soul and I am separate from God and all other humans. “…Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God.” (ACIM, Introduction, page 1.)

AA wisdom states that FEAR, the absolute opposite of Love, stands for Future Events Appearing Real. Based on my own experience, I cannot disagree with that definition.

From the novel, The Dreaming, by Barbara Wood, Random House, Inc., 1991, pages 429, 431: While discussing various Aboriginal tribal practices and ideas, “[t]he more complex concepts had been less easy to understand, such as the way Aborigines regarded time. Everything revolved around the Dreamtime, which Joanna had discovered, occurred not only in the past, but also in the present and the future. They had no words, in fact, for past, present and future – all was Dreamtime. And the clan had no separate words for yesterday, today and tomorrow, just the word punjara, which simply meant ‘another day.’ (p. 429).

“… Joanna saw the powerful bond between the various female relations and the other generations. She saw with envy the stairway she had imagined long ago – the descent of women from great-grandmothers to daughters. The smallest child could look at a white-haired woman bent over her digging stick and see the generations through which she had descended. Perhaps, Joanna thought, that was why these people had no need for words meaning past, present and future. They were all here now.” (p. 431)

These simple Aboriginal peoples, whose oral history dates back over an estimated 50,000 years, had already nailed it! “They had no words, in fact, for past, present and future – all was Dreamtime.” With all my smarts, education, technology, and gizmos, why is this so difficult for me to grasp? Why do I persist in planning, worrying, fretting, and beating myself up for perceived future problems or issues?

“Well, Donnie, it’s an indication of maturity. It’s a predictor of success (whatever that is). It’s the wise and prudent thing to do.” I guess that’s why I persist.

But it makes me miserable. I don’t enjoy life on Mother Nature’s terms. I get angry at bugs that eat my okra leaves. I get frustrated at a 5-week drought that really stresses my yard. I get really irritated at the deer and/or rabbits that eat my Joe Pye Weed plantings. I get saddened at my trees that are uprooted or snapped off from high winds and heavy rain.

Notice all the MY’s in that paragraph. Yep. My perceptions of events are simply unreal projections of my mind. They only exist in the universe that resides between my ears. Yet, they ruin my enjoyment of life as it unfolds. Because my perception is active, I can always compare what’s happening now to what I thought shoulda/coulda/oughta be happening. It’s never a pretty picture. It’s rarely happy resulting in contentment.

Continued in Part 2

Part 2 - We’re Never Really Upset For The Reason We Think

Continued from Part 1 - Msg 2, July, 2012

Sometimes I don’t hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I simply imagine another scenario. In the latest issue of “Miracles” magazine [Institute for Personal Religion, Jon Mundy, Publisher, Vol. 11, No. 4, Issue 64, July-August 2012, page 54] there was a small (very helpful) sidebar:

“Heavenly Father, help us to remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with the homework, do the laundry, and spend a few precious moments with her children…. Remind us …that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares…. Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together….”

Sometimes I don’t hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I simply imagine another scenario. Hearing a whisper or envisioning another scenario – isn’t that being offered “…another way of looking at the situation, event, or person?”

I certainly think so. Regardless, imagining a different scenario that fits the situation – but not my initial perception – truly helps me calm down and focus my attention, not on the situation, but on my perception of it. This is very much like my continual use of AA’s Fourth & Fifth Step, which guides me to become aware of my role in whatever situation or event is threatening my serenity or providing me with an upset.

Reviewing my role in a situation reminds me of one of the major principles of Maritime Law governing when two vessels collide. There are 7-8 discrete steps each captain is to follow to avoid a collision. However, the last step states something like “Forget all the other steps and do whatever it takes to avoid the collision.”  In short, when two boats collide, both captains are at fault. Maybe one is 90% at fault and the other is only 10%. But both have made a mistake.

For me that’s so true of life. That’s how my training in working the Fourth Step keeps me humble. In any situation upsetting my serenity or filling me with anger and judgment, I am playing a role in that. I can learn to control my part. I can accept responsibility for my part. If I can forgive the role I’ve played, then I can forgive the role someone else played. After all it’s all coming from my perception.

Just like the woman in the kitchen squeezing orange juice.

Thanks for listening. As always, feel free to share this message with your friends, family, and those with whom you are walking your spiritual path.

Don

#2 July, 2012

Part 1 - We’re Never Really Upset For The Reason We Think

Sometimes I don’t hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I simply imagine another scenario. It works just the same for me.

I have discussed many times in these messages some of the basic principles of A Course In Miracles (ACIM):

• ·      All is perception,
• ·      We’re never really upset for the reason we think, and
• ·      The 3-step process of forgiveness – We forgive the perceptions we’ve created, we forgive ourselves for projecting those perceptions, and then we ask the Holy Spirit for a different way of seeing things, still our mind, and wait for Him to show us another way to view the situation, event, or person.

Recently, I read a little booklet called “Temptation, Blame, and Forgiveness” by Mary Manin Morrisey (Living Enrichment Center, Wilsonville, OR 97070).  She opens the discussion with a story of a woman who had volunteered to cook at a spiritual retreat and who was having a difficult time with a volunteer helper. He was not much help at all.

“…She stayed in the kitchen…hand-squeezing orange juice for dozens of people….[S]he  turned around and her young helper [had taken] the orange juice … and gulped down every last drop. She thought: ‘Hmmm…well, okay.’ So she went back to squeezing. She had squeezed about an inch in the pitcher, turned around and he had poured that orange juice again and downed it! She felt so frustrated she wanted to scream. She wanted to squeeze his head into the pitcher.

“However, she took time to be introspective, to allow a new thought to enter her mind. As she did that, she asked herself: ‘Why am I feeling the way I’m feeling? What is going on for me that I should be so angry and upset and frustrated that he has taken this orange juice? If I am [doing this to be] in service, what does it really matter?’

“As she checked inside herself to find the source of her irritation, she realized that she wasn’t in service at all. She wanted the approval and the accolade of the group in the morning. She had imagined the group saying in delight, ‘Oh, you made us fresh orange juice! Isn’t that wonderful!’

“That young man with the vitamin C habit was a threat to her getting what she really wanted out of the squeezing of the orange juice. He threatened her reward.

“What a huge revelation!”

Using different words, Morrisey’s small tale is a story of the forgiveness process as taught by ACIM. It works for me when I allow it, although it is still very difficult for me to remember those three little steps when I’m in the middle of an upset. Several hours later, I remember. But by then the angry, judgmental, biting words have been spoken. The damage has been done. I know I am to look for the Christ in someone. I know I am to look for my humanity in someone else. How am I to do that?

Continued in Part 2 - Msg 2, July, 2012