I accept God’s gifts of peace and joy. God’s peace and joy are mine. God’s gifts never lessen when they are given away, they only increase. In fact, the only way I know I have peace and joy and can experience them is by sharing them, by giving them away. Think, of those brothers who I have labeled ‘enemies’ and have thus denied “the peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. Here you denied them to yourself. And here you must return to claim them as your own.”
Sharing God’s gifts and praying for others, if rightly understood, becomes a means of lifting my own projections of guilt from my brother, and enable me to recognize it is not he who is hurting me. “The poisonous thought that he is your enemy, your evil counterpart, your nemesis must be relinquished before you can be saved from guilt.” Seeing my enemies differently, as brothers who have been denied their peace and joy which are their right under the equal laws of God, helps me reconsider my perceptions of others and myself, correcting my perceptions from separate to shared interests.
It’s all about learning to accept and share spirit’s gifts, my birthright (and yours), by correcting my misperceptions. In the end, as Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and it is us,” and realize there is no one to forgive, no enemy out there. The ‘enemy’ is simply my (and your) faulty decision making, choosing the ego’s nightmare instead of spirit’s happy dream.
Re-thinking and re-labeling our ‘enemies’ is a never-ending process, requiring mindfulness and desire, love and compassion, but it is oh so worth while! Catching your self blaming, fearing, hating, judging, and punishing is, when seen with spirit, an opportunity to reclaim God’s gifts of peace and joy by sharing them and choosing to see your ‘enemy’ as your brother.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Difference Between Happiness and Joy
The difference between happiness and joy. Though I experience both as ephemeral, I’m coming to understand that joy – deep, rich, heart-felt joy, is of spirit, and happiness is of the ego. Happiness seems to arise when external circumstances go as expected or surpass expectations. So I’m happy when I see you, or taste something good, or wake up without aches and pains, raring to go. Joy is an inner experience and doesn’t depend on external events. It arises spontaneously, often paired with the peace that passeth understanding, independently of my judgments about external events and often in spite of my judgments of them. So I’m stuck in traffic and suddenly feel a deep sense of joy and peace. Or I’m in the dentist’s chair with the high speed drill whining and I feel a deep peace and hint of joy.
The internal/external, spirit/ego distinction between joy and happiness is important because with one, happiness, my feelings are dependent on events seemingly beyond my control, while with joy, I am in control and have a choice. Joy is my birthright as a child of spirit (yours, too) and we can experience it no matter what’s going on in and around us, by remembering who and what we are; saying enough to the ego’s nightmare; wanting to shift to our reality in spirit; then allowing spirit to awaken us – letting go of our individual ego identities, getting our bloated nothingness out of the way.
Then too, happiness being dependent on externals, requires a bit more work and is an ‘if/then’ proposition – if I get the job, the parking space, the date, I’ll be happy. Tho, we can also be happy by shifting from ego to spirit and experience the happy dream instead of the nightmare, what’s important is not feeling like a victim at the mercy of external events. Both happiness and joy can arise from the inside-out, from shifting from ego to spirit. The thing is, if we go for joy more often than we go for happiness, we will be building spiritual muscle and a commitment to our reality as spirit and begin experiencing both more joy and more happiness.
The internal/external, spirit/ego distinction between joy and happiness is important because with one, happiness, my feelings are dependent on events seemingly beyond my control, while with joy, I am in control and have a choice. Joy is my birthright as a child of spirit (yours, too) and we can experience it no matter what’s going on in and around us, by remembering who and what we are; saying enough to the ego’s nightmare; wanting to shift to our reality in spirit; then allowing spirit to awaken us – letting go of our individual ego identities, getting our bloated nothingness out of the way.
Then too, happiness being dependent on externals, requires a bit more work and is an ‘if/then’ proposition – if I get the job, the parking space, the date, I’ll be happy. Tho, we can also be happy by shifting from ego to spirit and experience the happy dream instead of the nightmare, what’s important is not feeling like a victim at the mercy of external events. Both happiness and joy can arise from the inside-out, from shifting from ego to spirit. The thing is, if we go for joy more often than we go for happiness, we will be building spiritual muscle and a commitment to our reality as spirit and begin experiencing both more joy and more happiness.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Business As Usual? con'd
“While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only joyful and whole. That is why I dance,” Hans Bos.
“When you have come to the edge…and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly,” Patrick Overton
Yesterday, I wrote that unless we’re motivated to shift from the ego’s nightmare to spirit’s happy dream, unless we experience a need to shift, had enough of the ego’s BS and want spirit’s peace and joy instead, we will not shift and things will stay as they are. The idea/belief that what’s going on in American political discourse is business as usual because all politicians lie, prevents us from experiencing the need to shift. So called ‘conservatives’ are serial liars beyond anything the USA has experienced in recent history.
“There is little that is truly conservative about what we are seeing,” Pitts says. “No, this is extremism , true believers so rigidly committed to their ideological crusades that they feel justified in vandalizing reason and sacrificing integrity in furtherance of their cause. The end justifies any means. So, as was the case with Jon Kyle, if you can’t prove your point with the facts at hand, make up some and prove it with those.
“It says much about the intellectual state of what passes for conservatism and the intellectual state of the union itself that this sort of behavior has become business as usual, just another day. This cannot end well. To continue down this path is to carve out a future of intellectual incoherence and international irrevlevance, to doom ourselves to yet more of a fractured political discourse that is loud, ignorant and incapable of reason, much less resolution.”
“When you have come to the edge…and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly,” Patrick Overton
Yesterday, I wrote that unless we’re motivated to shift from the ego’s nightmare to spirit’s happy dream, unless we experience a need to shift, had enough of the ego’s BS and want spirit’s peace and joy instead, we will not shift and things will stay as they are. The idea/belief that what’s going on in American political discourse is business as usual because all politicians lie, prevents us from experiencing the need to shift. So called ‘conservatives’ are serial liars beyond anything the USA has experienced in recent history.
“There is little that is truly conservative about what we are seeing,” Pitts says. “No, this is extremism , true believers so rigidly committed to their ideological crusades that they feel justified in vandalizing reason and sacrificing integrity in furtherance of their cause. The end justifies any means. So, as was the case with Jon Kyle, if you can’t prove your point with the facts at hand, make up some and prove it with those.
“It says much about the intellectual state of what passes for conservatism and the intellectual state of the union itself that this sort of behavior has become business as usual, just another day. This cannot end well. To continue down this path is to carve out a future of intellectual incoherence and international irrevlevance, to doom ourselves to yet more of a fractured political discourse that is loud, ignorant and incapable of reason, much less resolution.”
Monday, April 18, 2011
Business As Usual?
We can’t awaken from the fear, hatred, dread and blaming of the ego’s nightmare to our reality as spirit’s love, peace, joy and compassion, until we realize there is a choice, that we can see the world differently. Instead of looking at the world with ego and seeing fear, hatred, dread and blaming, we can look with spirit and experience love, peace, joy and compassion.
But to do this, to shift, we must realize that there is an alternative to the ego world. We must be motivated to see things differently, to choose another way. We must say enough to fear, hatred, dread and blaming and want love, peace, joy and compassion instead. Such a shift requires motivation, an inner choice. But we will not be motivated to do the inner work necessary to make this shift if one, we see no alternative, and two, don’t think there’s even a need for an alternative.
The idea and belief that what’s going on now in American political discourse – that all politicians lie, and Democrats lie as much as Republicans - is business as usual, suggests that there’s no need for an alternative, no need to shift, that it’s always been the way it is now and there’s no need to shift, it’s just business as usual.
Thus, the idea of business as usual in American political discourse is promulgated by those who see no need to change what’s going on now, perhaps because one, they don’t know what’s going on now, or two, have no standards of descent public discourse nor recollection of a time when discourse was civil and honest compromise was possible, or three, are somehow benefiting from things as they are now and want them to continue.
I suggest that the state of political discourse and decision making in the USA is not business as usual, that Democrats do not lie as much as so-called Conservatives and Republicans, that there is a need for a change, and we need to say enough to fear, hatred, dread and blaming and YES! to love, peace, joy and compassion instead.
Of course lying, fear, hatred, dread and blaming and YES! to love, peace, joy and compassion instead are not the province of one party. But, as Leonard Pitts Jr. said in his column yesterday, “when it comes to serial lying, to the biggest, most brazen, most audacious lies, the lies repeated ad nauseam until people mistake them for the truth [which was Nazi propagandist Joseph Geobles, ‘big lie’ concept], when it comes to the most absolute contempt for the facts and for the necessity of honest debate, it’s not even close. [So-called] conservatives have no equal.” Democrats and Republicans are not the same, it is not business as usual.
Pitts goes on to say that Politifact, the fact checking organization, has six categories for judging a statement’s veracity: true, mostly true, half true, barely true, false, and “Pants of Fire,” from the old school yard taunt of “liar, liar, pants on fire.” Liar, Liar means not only are the statements untrue, they also make some ridiculous claim. Pitts reviewed 100 such statements and by his count, of the 70 that originated with an identifiable individual or group (as opposed to a chain email or miscellaneous source) sixty-one, 61, were from the political right. That includes Rush Limbaugh saying President Obama is going to take away your right to fish, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer saying beheaded bodies are being found in the desert, and Sarah Palin claiming death panels will stalk the elderly – 90% of the most audacious lies coming from the so-called conservatives.
But to do this, to shift, we must realize that there is an alternative to the ego world. We must be motivated to see things differently, to choose another way. We must say enough to fear, hatred, dread and blaming and want love, peace, joy and compassion instead. Such a shift requires motivation, an inner choice. But we will not be motivated to do the inner work necessary to make this shift if one, we see no alternative, and two, don’t think there’s even a need for an alternative.
The idea and belief that what’s going on now in American political discourse – that all politicians lie, and Democrats lie as much as Republicans - is business as usual, suggests that there’s no need for an alternative, no need to shift, that it’s always been the way it is now and there’s no need to shift, it’s just business as usual.
Thus, the idea of business as usual in American political discourse is promulgated by those who see no need to change what’s going on now, perhaps because one, they don’t know what’s going on now, or two, have no standards of descent public discourse nor recollection of a time when discourse was civil and honest compromise was possible, or three, are somehow benefiting from things as they are now and want them to continue.
I suggest that the state of political discourse and decision making in the USA is not business as usual, that Democrats do not lie as much as so-called Conservatives and Republicans, that there is a need for a change, and we need to say enough to fear, hatred, dread and blaming and YES! to love, peace, joy and compassion instead.
Of course lying, fear, hatred, dread and blaming and YES! to love, peace, joy and compassion instead are not the province of one party. But, as Leonard Pitts Jr. said in his column yesterday, “when it comes to serial lying, to the biggest, most brazen, most audacious lies, the lies repeated ad nauseam until people mistake them for the truth [which was Nazi propagandist Joseph Geobles, ‘big lie’ concept], when it comes to the most absolute contempt for the facts and for the necessity of honest debate, it’s not even close. [So-called] conservatives have no equal.” Democrats and Republicans are not the same, it is not business as usual.
Pitts goes on to say that Politifact, the fact checking organization, has six categories for judging a statement’s veracity: true, mostly true, half true, barely true, false, and “Pants of Fire,” from the old school yard taunt of “liar, liar, pants on fire.” Liar, Liar means not only are the statements untrue, they also make some ridiculous claim. Pitts reviewed 100 such statements and by his count, of the 70 that originated with an identifiable individual or group (as opposed to a chain email or miscellaneous source) sixty-one, 61, were from the political right. That includes Rush Limbaugh saying President Obama is going to take away your right to fish, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer saying beheaded bodies are being found in the desert, and Sarah Palin claiming death panels will stalk the elderly – 90% of the most audacious lies coming from the so-called conservatives.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Anti Israel Boycott
Superb email sent to the Methodists regarding their call for Israel boycott
please circulate widely
TO: The General Secretary of the Methodist Church and Connexial Team.
Dear Sir,
In your annual conference you have passed a policy calling for a boycott of goods from “illegal” Israeli West Bank settlements”.
You claim this is not anti-Semitic. But how else do you explain this strange obsession with Israel? What about the Chinese occupation of Tibet; or the Sudanese slaughter in Darfur, persecution in Zimbabwe and elsewhere?
Politically, one could probably compile a case for a boycott against just about every country on the planet, but the only country in the world being subjected to a call for a boycott is Israel.
The so-called West Bank has been Jewish for more than 3000 years. A large part was known as Judea. Jesus, a Jew, was born there. Who do you imagine lived in Judea, if not the Jews? Who lived in Hebron but the Hebrews? The name Bethlehem is Hebrew. Only the Jews, of all the people in the world, living in their own land, are besmirched by being called illegal settlers.
Israel is monstrously depicted as Apartheid, notwithstanding the fact that one fifth of her population is Israeli Arab with full rights. The Palestinians claim the West Bank as theirs and require the land to be Juden Frei. And just who are the “Palestinians”? Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. There has never been a King of Palestine. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. The "Palestinian" leader Yasser Arafat was an Egyptian. They have no claim on the West Bank. Israel is not wrongfully "occupying" or “settling” anything. Israel is currently the subject of a demonization and misinformation campaign put out by Arab sources and propelled with a strong anti-Semitic undercurrent.
The Arab world is spewing out anti-Semitism unequalled since the Hitler era. It is so pervasive, many Jews are being infected.
Israel is portrayed as the most evil state on the planet. Why are you so obsessed with Israel, yet say nothing about the persecution of Christians? According to Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer, the dwindling Christian communities in Palestinian-run territories are likely to dissipate completely within the next 15 years as a result of increasing Palestinian maltreatment: "The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, and the media." Your boycott of Israeli “settlements” is, of course, the prelude to a boycott of all Israel. I trust you are preparing a complete boycott of everything coming out of Israel. Check all your medications. An Israeli company has developed a simple blood test that distinguishes between mild and more severe cases of Multiple Sclerosis.
So, if you know anyone suffering from MS, tell them to ignore the Israeli patent that may, more accurately, diagnose their symptoms. An Israeli-made device helps restore the use of paralyzed hands. This device electrically stimulates the hand muscles, providing hope to millions of stroke sufferers and victims of spinal injuries. If you wish to remove this hope of a better quality of life to these people, go ahead and boycott Israel. Young children with breathing problems will soon be sleeping more soundly, thanks to a new Israeli device called the Child Hood. This innovation replaces the inhalation mask with an improved drug delivery system that provides relief for child and parent. Please tell anxious mothers that they shouldn't use this device because of your passionate cause. These are just a few examples of how people have benefited medically from Israeli research and developments.
Boycotts often affect research. A new research centre in Israel hopes to throw light on brain disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease. The Joseph Sangol
Neuroscience Center in the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer Hospital, aims to bring thousands of scientists and doctors to focus on brain research. A researcher at Israel's Ben Gurion University has succeeded in creating human monoclonal antibodies which can neutralize the highly contagious smallpox virus without inducing the dangerous side effects of the existing vaccine.
Two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doctors Ciechanover and Hershko's research and discovery of one of the human cells most important cyclical processes will lead the way to DNA repair, control of newly produced proteins, and immune defense systems. The Movement Disorder Surgery program at Israel's Hadassah Medical Centre has successfully eliminated the physical manifestations of Parkinson's disease in a select group of patients with a deep brain stimulation technique. For women who undergo hysterectomies each year for the treatment of uterine fibroids, the development in Israel of the Ex Ablate 2000 System
is a welcome breakthrough, offering a non-invasive alternative to surgery. Israel is developing a nose drop that will provide a five year flu vaccine.
These are just a few of the projects that you can help stop with your Israel boycott.
Most of Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. So, throw away your computer. Computers should have a sign attached saying Israel Inside. The Pentium NMX Chip technology was designed at Intel in Israel. Both the Pentium 4 microprocessor and the Centrum processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 in Israel by four young
Israeli whiz kids. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R & D facilities outside the US in Israel.
Get rid of your mobile phone. This technology was also developed in Israel by Motorola which has its biggest development centre in Israel. Most of the latest technology in your mobile phone was developed by Israeli scientists. Part of your personal security rests with Israeli inventiveness, borne out of our urgent necessity to protect and defend our lives from the terrorists you support. A phone can remotely activate a bomb, or be used for tactical communications by terrorists, bank robbers, or hostage-takers. It is vital that official security and police have access to cellular jamming and detection solutions. Israel's Net line Communications Technologies has the security expertise to help the fight against terror.
Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies outside of Silicon Valley. Israel has more museums per capita. Israel has the second highest publication of new books per capita. Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth. These immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom or expression, economic opportunity, and quality of life. Israel is the only country in the world which had a net gain in the number of trees last year.
Israel is making a massive contribution to the world, including the Palestinians -- and to you -- in science, medicine, communications and security.
Pro rata for population, Israel is making a greater contribution than any other nation on earth. And what is the Arab world doing? Buying rockets and missiles and
Threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. The call by your church to boycott Israel, which is the intention, reeks of the stench of anti-Semitism. You should all hang your heads in shame.
Yours faithfully,
Gerald Oberman.
please circulate widely
TO: The General Secretary of the Methodist Church and Connexial Team.
Dear Sir,
In your annual conference you have passed a policy calling for a boycott of goods from “illegal” Israeli West Bank settlements”.
You claim this is not anti-Semitic. But how else do you explain this strange obsession with Israel? What about the Chinese occupation of Tibet; or the Sudanese slaughter in Darfur, persecution in Zimbabwe and elsewhere?
Politically, one could probably compile a case for a boycott against just about every country on the planet, but the only country in the world being subjected to a call for a boycott is Israel.
The so-called West Bank has been Jewish for more than 3000 years. A large part was known as Judea. Jesus, a Jew, was born there. Who do you imagine lived in Judea, if not the Jews? Who lived in Hebron but the Hebrews? The name Bethlehem is Hebrew. Only the Jews, of all the people in the world, living in their own land, are besmirched by being called illegal settlers.
Israel is monstrously depicted as Apartheid, notwithstanding the fact that one fifth of her population is Israeli Arab with full rights. The Palestinians claim the West Bank as theirs and require the land to be Juden Frei. And just who are the “Palestinians”? Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. There has never been a King of Palestine. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. The "Palestinian" leader Yasser Arafat was an Egyptian. They have no claim on the West Bank. Israel is not wrongfully "occupying" or “settling” anything. Israel is currently the subject of a demonization and misinformation campaign put out by Arab sources and propelled with a strong anti-Semitic undercurrent.
The Arab world is spewing out anti-Semitism unequalled since the Hitler era. It is so pervasive, many Jews are being infected.
Israel is portrayed as the most evil state on the planet. Why are you so obsessed with Israel, yet say nothing about the persecution of Christians? According to Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer, the dwindling Christian communities in Palestinian-run territories are likely to dissipate completely within the next 15 years as a result of increasing Palestinian maltreatment: "The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, and the media." Your boycott of Israeli “settlements” is, of course, the prelude to a boycott of all Israel. I trust you are preparing a complete boycott of everything coming out of Israel. Check all your medications. An Israeli company has developed a simple blood test that distinguishes between mild and more severe cases of Multiple Sclerosis.
So, if you know anyone suffering from MS, tell them to ignore the Israeli patent that may, more accurately, diagnose their symptoms. An Israeli-made device helps restore the use of paralyzed hands. This device electrically stimulates the hand muscles, providing hope to millions of stroke sufferers and victims of spinal injuries. If you wish to remove this hope of a better quality of life to these people, go ahead and boycott Israel. Young children with breathing problems will soon be sleeping more soundly, thanks to a new Israeli device called the Child Hood. This innovation replaces the inhalation mask with an improved drug delivery system that provides relief for child and parent. Please tell anxious mothers that they shouldn't use this device because of your passionate cause. These are just a few examples of how people have benefited medically from Israeli research and developments.
Boycotts often affect research. A new research centre in Israel hopes to throw light on brain disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease. The Joseph Sangol
Neuroscience Center in the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer Hospital, aims to bring thousands of scientists and doctors to focus on brain research. A researcher at Israel's Ben Gurion University has succeeded in creating human monoclonal antibodies which can neutralize the highly contagious smallpox virus without inducing the dangerous side effects of the existing vaccine.
Two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doctors Ciechanover and Hershko's research and discovery of one of the human cells most important cyclical processes will lead the way to DNA repair, control of newly produced proteins, and immune defense systems. The Movement Disorder Surgery program at Israel's Hadassah Medical Centre has successfully eliminated the physical manifestations of Parkinson's disease in a select group of patients with a deep brain stimulation technique. For women who undergo hysterectomies each year for the treatment of uterine fibroids, the development in Israel of the Ex Ablate 2000 System
is a welcome breakthrough, offering a non-invasive alternative to surgery. Israel is developing a nose drop that will provide a five year flu vaccine.
These are just a few of the projects that you can help stop with your Israel boycott.
Most of Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. So, throw away your computer. Computers should have a sign attached saying Israel Inside. The Pentium NMX Chip technology was designed at Intel in Israel. Both the Pentium 4 microprocessor and the Centrum processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 in Israel by four young
Israeli whiz kids. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R & D facilities outside the US in Israel.
Get rid of your mobile phone. This technology was also developed in Israel by Motorola which has its biggest development centre in Israel. Most of the latest technology in your mobile phone was developed by Israeli scientists. Part of your personal security rests with Israeli inventiveness, borne out of our urgent necessity to protect and defend our lives from the terrorists you support. A phone can remotely activate a bomb, or be used for tactical communications by terrorists, bank robbers, or hostage-takers. It is vital that official security and police have access to cellular jamming and detection solutions. Israel's Net line Communications Technologies has the security expertise to help the fight against terror.
Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies outside of Silicon Valley. Israel has more museums per capita. Israel has the second highest publication of new books per capita. Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth. These immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom or expression, economic opportunity, and quality of life. Israel is the only country in the world which had a net gain in the number of trees last year.
Israel is making a massive contribution to the world, including the Palestinians -- and to you -- in science, medicine, communications and security.
Pro rata for population, Israel is making a greater contribution than any other nation on earth. And what is the Arab world doing? Buying rockets and missiles and
Threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. The call by your church to boycott Israel, which is the intention, reeks of the stench of anti-Semitism. You should all hang your heads in shame.
Yours faithfully,
Gerald Oberman.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
One Problem, One Solution
California regulators OK a new carcinogenic pesticide for strawberries to replace the old carcinogenic pesticide they outlawed – Sierra Club
Catastrophic floods put half of the West African country of Benin and much of northeastern Australia under water – Sierra Club
“Great art is precisely that which never was nor will be taught; it is preeminently and finally the express of the spirits of great (souls),” John Ruskin
“My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation,” the Course in Miracles says. Sadness is the sign that I would play another part instead of the one assigned me by spirit, and thus fail to show the world how great the happiness is that It wills for me, and everyone and everything else, and therefore.
The ego’s part is to prove happiness, peace and forgiveness are not universal and the truth for everyone and everything, and that spirit is wrong. Sadness demonstrates ego has won; happiness, that it has lost. By denying humanity the fruits of our happiness, we deny those fruits to ourselves. If I am sad, my part is unfulfilled, and all the world is deprived of joy along with me. Being sad is holding onto a grievance, believing I’m an ego and amounts to telling spirit it is wrong and the ego, right.
The Course says we are never sad for the reasons we think, that those are the ego’s ‘reasons,’ and that sadness never comes from circumstances beyond me – whether in my body or another’s – but from my mind’s decision to attack instead of forgive, to follow the ego instead of spirit. That is why salvation, happiness, peace and forgiveness are simple, there is only one problem and one solution, to choose spirit instead of ego.
Catastrophic floods put half of the West African country of Benin and much of northeastern Australia under water – Sierra Club
“Great art is precisely that which never was nor will be taught; it is preeminently and finally the express of the spirits of great (souls),” John Ruskin
“My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation,” the Course in Miracles says. Sadness is the sign that I would play another part instead of the one assigned me by spirit, and thus fail to show the world how great the happiness is that It wills for me, and everyone and everything else, and therefore.
The ego’s part is to prove happiness, peace and forgiveness are not universal and the truth for everyone and everything, and that spirit is wrong. Sadness demonstrates ego has won; happiness, that it has lost. By denying humanity the fruits of our happiness, we deny those fruits to ourselves. If I am sad, my part is unfulfilled, and all the world is deprived of joy along with me. Being sad is holding onto a grievance, believing I’m an ego and amounts to telling spirit it is wrong and the ego, right.
The Course says we are never sad for the reasons we think, that those are the ego’s ‘reasons,’ and that sadness never comes from circumstances beyond me – whether in my body or another’s – but from my mind’s decision to attack instead of forgive, to follow the ego instead of spirit. That is why salvation, happiness, peace and forgiveness are simple, there is only one problem and one solution, to choose spirit instead of ego.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Thought of Happiness
In the US, low prices for natural gas scuttle or delay many wind farms and solar installations – Sierra Club
The International Energy Agency announces that the world hit ‘peak oil’ in 2006, with production from current fields expected to drop sharply in the coming decades – Sierra Club
“Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning in memorable form,” Jacques Barzum
“We will not let ourselves be sad today. For if we do, we fail to take the part that is essential to God’s plan,” Course in Miracles. This does not mean you and I have to put on a happy face, nor that we need to stop ourselves from feeling sad. It means that when we do feel sad, which is inevitable, we need to know that it comes from the mind’s though of sadness, born of having chosen ego over spirit.
Then, knowing this, ask spirit for help changing our minds so that we may take our part in spirit’s plan for salvation, for awakening ourselves and others from the ego’s nightmare to spirit’s happy dream and saving Its children from pain and suffering. Spirit’s appeal to us, the still small voice, is constant.
Our decision to be sad is a decision to hold ourselves, humanity and the world in the nightmare, apart from salvation and in hell. We need not smile all day. Rather, we are to be with what is, but be mindful. From our awareness that we are not happy arises the motivation to choose again, to see things differently and to ask the thought of happiness in our minds for help.
The International Energy Agency announces that the world hit ‘peak oil’ in 2006, with production from current fields expected to drop sharply in the coming decades – Sierra Club
“Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning in memorable form,” Jacques Barzum
“We will not let ourselves be sad today. For if we do, we fail to take the part that is essential to God’s plan,” Course in Miracles. This does not mean you and I have to put on a happy face, nor that we need to stop ourselves from feeling sad. It means that when we do feel sad, which is inevitable, we need to know that it comes from the mind’s though of sadness, born of having chosen ego over spirit.
Then, knowing this, ask spirit for help changing our minds so that we may take our part in spirit’s plan for salvation, for awakening ourselves and others from the ego’s nightmare to spirit’s happy dream and saving Its children from pain and suffering. Spirit’s appeal to us, the still small voice, is constant.
Our decision to be sad is a decision to hold ourselves, humanity and the world in the nightmare, apart from salvation and in hell. We need not smile all day. Rather, we are to be with what is, but be mindful. From our awareness that we are not happy arises the motivation to choose again, to see things differently and to ask the thought of happiness in our minds for help.
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