MORPH CRISIS INTO OPPORTUNITY

 MORPH CRISIS INTO OPPORTUNITY - GO WITH THE FLOW, KNOW AND GROW!

. Go with the flow, then know and grow!

 Go with the flow, then know and grow!

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

OSCAR WILDE

Joyful Expectations?

 

When we release expectation and invite appreciation, all the moments of our lives become openings and opportunities.

KRISTI NELSON

A TIME FOR "ASKING NEW QUESTIONS: A SACRED ACTIVISM", "A slowing down that knows enchantment is not in short supply."

 

This is a time for straying, for losing one’s way, for asking new questions. A sacred activism. A slowing down that knows enchantment is not in short supply.

BAYO AKOMOLAFE

How to live with "the lens of a love for every tattered inch of this earth."

 

Living as prayer. I think that is when I am at my best. Because seeing through prayer provides a remarkable clarity. Not in the doctrinal sense, but because it is, at best, the lens of a love for every tattered inch of this earth.

IMANI PERRY Personally, prayer = meditation, Ron Alexander

The secret of finding a deeper level in the other....

 

BE Kind, and be careful with sarcasm too...

 however it is so hard especially with humorous ones like this:

Actually the only one this could pertain to is Manafort, born April 8, 1948

TO BE OR TO DO? Which is more important?

 

In the bigger scheme of things the universe is not asking us to do something, the universe is asking us to be something. And that’s a whole different thing.

LUCILLE CLIFTON

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

 

When we are brave enough to sit with our pain, it deepens our ability to sit with the pain of others. It shows us how to love them.

VALARIE KAUR Suffering is when we cannot ""sit with our pain" - acceptance is the key to not suffering.

Thic Nhat Hanh on "Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey."

 

Here is a gift from Thay to guide our hearts and minds in this time of loss. 

This body is not me.

I am not limited by this body.

I am life without boundaries.

I have never been born, 

and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,

manifestations from my wondrous True Mind.

Since before time, I have been free.

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,

sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,

let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.

We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life. 

Taken to the edge, what will make it meaningful?

 

You don’t get to choose whether or not you’re going to be taken to these edges. You will be taken to those edges. The only thing we have to ask ourselves is what we require to make it meaningful.

FRANCIS WELLER

Felt Oneness, truly there are no "others".

 "Last week we talked about how we have freedom to think as we feel led to with regard to spiritual concepts, teachings, practices, etc"  Ed Kosak

Rev. Ed was writing about Religious, Spiritual Freedom, and I was reacting from a political, worldly view of "freedom" earlier in the week. So I apologize to Rev Ed for mixing "apples with oranges". 

In a more positive, spiritual response, I will relate an epiphany I had this past weekend at the Confederate Monument. I walked around the monument both days in "protest" to the Confederate Flaggers. It was an annual Confederate Memorial Day there Saturday.  There were re-enactors in both Confederate and Union uniforms. There were both flags represented. Suits and ties were worn by others, and a big wreath and other flowers were at the foot of the monument honoring the victims of the war. BLM protestors were taunting them from across the street.

When I was a elementary student in a small Southern town, we had to march (a fairly long walk) to the Confederate Cemetery with flowers for their graves, on this Memorial Day. 

I did my usual silent "mindful walk" with my Veterans for Peace flag with BLM emblems. They were leaving at my second walk around and a BLM supporter with an American Flag was there arguing with two of the well dressed "celebrants". The woman was very distressed at the argument, and the man appeared to hear the BLM side of the story with a calmer demeanor. I saw my Mother in the woman, whose expression was contorted with much pain, and reacted with "you'll are more hateful than we are." I flashed her the peace sign, however she reacted with "your peace means nothing.". I felt compassion for her. The white-hair man thanked us for our service and they walked away.

After all had left, including the three friendly policemen (two were Black women), a BLM supporter picked up the wreath and other flowers and threw them in a nearby trashcan. I was walking in silence at the time, this action disturbed me, however I did not object and kept walking. 

The next day, a Sunday, normally the alternate day that the monument was reserved to be occupied by BLM supporters, was fronted by Confederate Flaggers. They had apparently pulled the trashed, tattered wreath out of the can, and had it back behind them in front of the monument. BLM regulars were back across the street, 

For the first time, responding to the events yesterday, I felt more compassion for the flaggers then ever. Equal compassion for them as for my fellow BLM supporters across the street. I had never felt so much equanimity, balance, truly "peace beyond understanding". Which I retain to this day. Now I realize what some spiritual practices call "Oneness" and others call "Interbeing." 

 . 
I am very grateful for my Unity, Buddhist, Native American, Hindu. Judaism,  Bahia and other Spiritual lessons.  May all Beings be happy,  Ron Alexander

Freedom of thought, part 2

 Freedom of thought, part 2. Last week we talked about how we have freedom to think as we feel led to with regard to spiritual concepts, teachings, practices, etc. And how this freedom is deeply embedded in Unity's culture and history. Finally, we mentioned the Buddhist idea that freedom of thought encompasses the following idea: we need to be aware of the suffering that we bring about when we impose our views on another. The word suffering stood out to me. I have long mentioned that our need to be right is a form of violence or suffering that we inflict on others. But after taking the Buddhist wording more deeply into my consciousness, it struck me that when I inflict suffering on another in this manner, the suffering in me is what causes me to do it. Thus the classic case of psychological projection, or what Jesus calls "look at the log in your own eye before seeing the sliver in another's eye." Sooooo....every time I feel the need to be right in an egoic, unhealthy manner, I become mindful of this idea espoused by Jesus and the Buddhist traditions. And I heal my suffering through prayer and meditation, or talking to a friend, or seeing a therapist. Thus, we can be liberated in mind and heart and spirit and allow others to have their opinions and views freely as well.

LOVE THIS STUFF!!!

Heal Society, reclaim and repair the human spirit.

 

We cannot have a healed society, we cannot have change, we cannot have justice, if we do not reclaim and repair the human spirit.

ANGEL KYODO WILLIAMS

SENSORY AWARENESS: DISCIPLINE TO CONTROL the RAMPANT MIND (From my Master's thesis)

AWARE SILENCE IS MORE VALUABLE THAN UNAWARE VERBIAGE (Passage from my Master's Thesis)

Does free speech mean free hate speech? What would Buddhists have done during Hitler's reign?

 Subject: Powerful, inspirational event (ONE NATION...UNITED AGAINST HATE Rally and Candlelight Vigil)

 Sunday night at beautiful Hampton Park in Charleston, S.C. led by Pastor Thomas Dixon:
Cal Morrison: (a veteran and new inspirational friend):
"Thank you Thomas Dixon for gathering us who understand the violent realities generated by HATE. But, more importantly, we understand that HATE, like all other diseases, can be mitigated and/or cured with the appropriate response, education, and LOVE.
We must continually engage individually and collectively against HATE!

Also, we must demonstrate to the forces of HATE that the forces of LOVE is greater in numbers, purpose and effect on America. America is best suited for whatever the best is!" 

   

AND/OR? Does free speech mean free hate speech? What would Buddhists have done during Hitler's reign?

To go more deeply into it, Here is a take into freedom of thought from the Plum Village tradition of Buddhism, The Third Mindfulness Training. I just love this and use it as an affirmation every day: Rev. Ed Kosak

Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are determined not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever-such as authority, threat, money, propaganda or indoctrination-to adopt our views. We are committed to respecting the right of others to be different, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will however, learned to help others let go of and transform fanaticism and narrowness through loving speech and compassionate dialogue.

                                                                                                                         

LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD

 

May we each discover our own form of spiritual electricity — and light up our world.

EILEEN RIVERS

Rev. Ed shares this about freedom of thought....

 To go more deeply into it, Here is a take into freedom of thought from the Plum Village tradition of Buddhism, The Third Mindfulness Training. I just love this and use it as an affirmation every day:

Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are determined not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever-such as authority, threat, money, propaganda or indoctrination-to adopt our views. We are committed to respecting the right of others to be different, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will however, learned to help others let go of and transform fanaticism and narrowness through loving speech and compassionate dialogue.

Open the door to the Miracle of our Being's Mystery

 

We open the door of the unknown together. We invite each other to experience the miracle of being.

GUILLERMO CUELLAR

Become Awake Now! | Eckhart Tolle & Russell Brand - Full Episode (This is where I learned difference between chaos and cosmos)

SAILING THROUGH THE COSMOS (From chaos to cosmos)

 

Each day is an invitation to see the world in a new way, to watch it bloom before our eyes like a flower in time-lapse photography, to feel the curvature of the earth in our bodies, and to become aware that we live on the edge of a spinning ball where anything can happen.

MARV AND NANCY HILES Planet earth time lapse from space Chaos = disorder, cosmos = order ONe of my sailboats was call Kayoss, named by its owner who thought that be sailing away from his large family would bring peace. To; the contrary, as for me, sailing away did not bring peace.

REFLECT WITHOUT REGRET

 

Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light.

IMAM AL-HADDAD

Gratitude arises when...

 

Gratitude arises when we bring an open and full presence to our life, and its sweetness is a feeling of homecoming.

TARA BRACH

The older I get the more beautiful nature becomes...

 

– Let Your Awareness Do the Work

 

Day 8 – Let Your Awareness Do the Work  Society teaches us that we need to struggle and strive to overcome obstacles, that to get unstuck we need to push and fight our way through. But struggling never solves the root problem of limited awareness.  In today’s meditation, we learn that our higher self is not only unlimited, it is also creative, powerful, and intelligent. If we learn to abide in our essential being, its organizing power will effortlessly find choices and solutions for us.

Our centering thought for today is:  I am aware of being cared for and supported.  “Because everything happens in the moment of Now we also happen in the moment of Now: continually, effortlessly, truly.” – Joseph Rain