Archive for the 'Pondering' Category

that’s just the way it is

Jim October 11th, 2008

in the last few weeks Americans discovered the fragility of our economy and financial infrastructures. some were caught off guard and were surprised things could slide so fast. sometimes, things that appear rock solid on the outside are quite vulnerable at the core. the school bully appears frightening to everyone but the smallest confrontation could quite possibly call his bluff and expose his true weakness.

it got me wondering about the ego/flesh system set up in our world, and all the hate, injustice, despair, division, greed, suffering, disease, loneliness, dysfunction, poverty, emptiness, and destruction it produces. strangely enough it was Tupac’s remix of “That’s Just the Way It Is” that got me pondering all this.

is it true – “that’s just the way it is?” is it true – “some things never change?” should we be waiting for Jesus to come back and fix it?

or is it that we have bought into the ego/flesh propaganda, which makes the system look rock solid and unchangeable? but didn’t Jesus expose the truth that the system is actually quite weak and fragile at its core? the system played it’s best card – death, and Jesus trumped it, exposing the whole thing as a load of crock.

so, why don’t we stop believing the propaganda, and quit investing ourselves in that system? do we have to play by their rules – hate, greed, and pride? what would it mean to only invest ourselves in the kingdom of God? sure, you might look foolish in the eyes of some by doing so; so did Jesus.

maybe the system is closer to collapse than we think.

(photo by zoo gal)

spiritual subtraction (I – Me = Freedom)

Jim October 5th, 2008

it’s fall, and we decided to do a house deep clean yesterday. it involved dragging a bunch of stuff out into the garage in preparation for next weekend’s neighborhood garage sale. it’s amazing how much stuff i hold onto that i don’t need or use but for some strange reason can’t let go of. and yet getting this stuff out of our house felt good. it kinda felt like having a new beginning – a fresh start on a simpler and uncluttered life.

it got me thinking about all the “letting go” kinds of things that have been an aspect of my journey these last few years. for example, there have been many instances of letting go of my fixed ideas about all kinds of things – my fixed ideas about people, my fixed ideas about God and truth and myself. in many respects Divine Nobodies was simply my story of letting go but the letting go continues to this day. it’s not easy to let go of long-held ideas. heck, for that matter, it’s sometimes not easy for me to even let go of short-held ideas! my mind likes the security of a fixed idea, especially the ones i come up with.

i’ve also had to let go of the notion that i can control my circumstances. my motivation for wanting to control them was the misguided idea that the “right” circumstances would bring me love, peace, contentment, fulfillment, and freedom. an aspect of this has also been letting go of the notion that God sits on a throne in the sky, and if i’m good or pray a lot, that God will intervene and work out my circumstances as desired, or at least as a bare minimum protect me from catastrophy. in many respects, this was the motivation during my religious days – appeasing and petitioning God as a means of influencing the circumstances of my life.

the letting go list goes on – letting go of others opinions of me, letting go of those activities and endeavors of my life that are just ego games, letting go of my attachments to outcomes, and letting go of my misplaced dependencies for worth and identity. for many years i thought of spiritual growth as addition, adding a bunch of stuff you don’t currently have to your life that you imagine you need: more knowledge, more discipline, more commitment, more faith, more community, more service, etc. it seems now though that it’s more a matter of subtraction. i already am all that i need (an expression of God, the kingdom of God within, Christ life, however you relate to it), and letting go or subtracting the other stuff allows it.

the words “letting go” aren’t perfect because they seem to emphasize that it’s something i consciously did. there’s a real fine line here because it doesn’t seem like i should really take much credit. it’s not like i set out to identify what to let go of, and then as i uncovered things said, “Oh okay, well I’ll just let go of that one now, and be done with it. Whew, glad that one is gone.” what seems to happen is that all kinds of factors come together in any given moment or circumstance where i become conscious of needing to let go. often it involves experiencing suffering, and then i discover that the root of my suffering is something i’m holding onto.
the words “letting go” also seem to imply that it’s a one-and-done deal. but for me, “letting go” is more of a daily tool. plenty of opportunity presents itself in my mind to latch onto something, and so i see it for what it is and refuse to grab ahold of it. i let it go.

(photo by Shenghung)

My So-Concepted Life

Jim October 3rd, 2008

No, not “my so-called life” but “my so-concepted life.” What kind of life is this? It’s a life of concepts. In this life there are no real people, just concepts of people. It’s not even necessary to relate to real and actual people, i can just relate to my concept of them. Have trouble connecting and communicating? No problem, just deal in concepts; there’s a concept for everything.
God, truth, the real you, freedom, peace, love – Ha! No way; just concepts of God, truth, the real you, freedom, peace, and love. Not so fast; it’s not a totally empty life. Don’t you feel good when you’ve got something all packaged up in a concept? Once you manufacture the concept, it’s as if it must be real, and you feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment; you know, like you’re finally getting somewhere. Of course there is no “getting somewhere” but you have the concept of “getting somewhere” because that’s how it works in your “so-concepted life.”

are you bored with your current concepts? Well, crank out some new ones. Do you need an enemy to fight? Go ahead and be my guest; create the concept of any enemy you’d like. In the so-concepted life, you become so immersed in concepts that you can’t imagine any reality outside them.

Hmm…maybe there is someone out there who is living in the real. If so, would you leave a comment and express what it’s like? It would be very-much appreciated. That way I can take what you express and create a new concept and be happy again.

(photo by zoo gal)

applying the new mind

Jim September 30th, 2008

i appreciate every person who contacts me as a result of reading one of my books. often as a result, new friendships begin and conversations evolve. i’ve been on the road the last few days and i received an email from someone who is struggling through watching someone they deeply care for suffer through cancer. as part of the email she mentioned, “why God allow bad things to happen to good people.”

i asked her if she would consider a different way of processing the situation. what if instead the truth is, God never shuts off the supply of good for anyone, ever, no matter their condition or circumstance.  another way you could say it is, the source of all goodness is unconditionally present within our being in every moment. the Christ life within, or that intuitive knowing knitted to the fabric of our deepest being, or those deep feelings flowing within us, which connect us with love, peace, freedom, and contentment are never under any threat by the condition of our human body or the reality of our human circumstances. the changing condition of our human body and human circumstances are part of what it means to be a human expression of divine reality. and yet none of this shuts off the supply of everything that is truly good.

right?

(photo by zoo gal)

what does the sun do? shine

Jim September 24th, 2008

so, let’s say you come to this point on the journey when you realize that ‘you’ are not the sum total of your physical biology or the sum total of what happens in your mind. come to think of it, you realize, your mind seems to be perpetually preoccupied with things like comparing yourself to others, acquiring something you don’t have, doing something important that others will take note of, being accepted and loved by others, proving your superiority over others, what people think of you, and an endless amount of other things that just seem to breed discontent, fear, worry, and all kinds of crappy stuff.

so you realize there is more to you than what you see in the mirror and all the craziness that goes on in your head.

perhaps you’ve been told you were created as a reflection or image of God, or as a Christian you know that the Christ life flows within you, or maybe you have realized there is something more to you that springs forth from your deep feelings or a certain intuitive knowing inside you. in any event, more and more you are identifying with that divine reflection or Christ life or deep feeling or intuitive knowing within you. more and more you are understanding these to be the real you.

it dawns on you that this ‘you’ can’t be improved, made better, enlightened, or enhanced. does the image of God need imporvement? is the Christ life within you in need of progress? do those deep feelings or that intuitve knowing need educated? you realize, this ‘you’ is all that it is in every moment, and never in need of you doing anything. it’s like the sun. the sun is the sun always. it doesn’t strive to be the sun. it doesn’t need help to be the sun. it doesn’t follow a program to be a better sun. it never fears being less of a sun. it isn’t bogged down in an endless number of options about how to be or how not to be the sun. it’s just the sun…always. it has no options…it just is.

what would life be like if we quit feeding and acting upon all that stuff in our mind, and instead just allowed ourselves to be a reflection or expression of God, be the Christ life, be those deep feelings or intuitive understanding?

so what i’m asking is, what would a life of simply being these entail? what if we stopped orienting our lives around all the head stuff, and oriented all of life around being that real you?

(photo by zoo gal)

what is being?

Jim September 16th, 2008

the ‘real you’ (the Christ-life you, the deep-feeling you, the knowing you, etc.)  can’t be renewed, reformed, enlightened, improved, educated, or purified. the ‘real you’ is an expression of God/Truth/All/Christ. it’s forever and always 100% perfection. it is what it is and always will be.

we could apply all those actions to the ego-mind/self, seeking to reform, educate, or enlighten it. but why? it’s the ego-mind, and it is what it is also. so, if you let go of the desire of reforming your ego-mind, all that’s left is being the ‘real you.’ what does that mean? what does it mean to “be?” what does it feel like and look like? if someone said to you “it’s time to start being,” how would you respond? instead of a _________-driven life, what about simple being. how does that work out? is that the kind of life you want to live? what would be desirable about it? how would it be different from the typical life?

(photo by zoo gal)

Next »