Recently I have been reading the book "Tomorrow's God" by Neale Donald Walsh. In this book he both says we will (need to) move into a new spiritual renaissance if we are to save the planet and that it will include a new understanding of God which he calls Tomorrow's God. He says we will (or suggests we should) stop using the word God (or Allah, or any similar words) because of the huge amount of misunderstandings and baggage we have attached to that word. Instead he suggests we use the word LIFE.
Notice how this does shift some misunderstandings. I for one think the ideas that God as vengeful, punishing, jealous or only blessing the US are distorted understanding of the Divine Being. So in his schema of substituting the word Life you get:
A punishing God = A punishing Life. Well that sort of clears up that Life does not punish us. Sometimes other people do, but that is based upon their will, beliefs, or values. They were not directed by the Life force to punish anyone.
A vengeful God = a vengeful Life. Again there is no evidence of Life creating vengeance. Some animals eat others but it is not vengeance. Some people are vengeful to other people but again out of their emotions, or beliefs. But the Life force does not make them vengeful. In fact it is easier to notice that when a group acts vengefully towards another that the life force does not direct them to do so....they may call on beliefs to explain their actions, especially religious beliefs or as Walsh would say "the Old God".
A jealous God = a jealous Life. Now it starts to seem rather absurd doesn't it? How can life be jealous?
God Bless America = Life Bless America. Well Life does bless America, and every other country too. While certainly some have far less material goods or sometimes less useful natural resources, none are without laughter, kindness, creativity, etc....in other words the blessings of life.
And then there is the other side of this:
A Loving God = A Loving Life. Yes indeed as we look around we see all kinds of evidence of Life providing love, and love coming through all aspects of life and in fact creating life.
God the Creator = Life the Creator. Well that one is fairly obvious huh?
God as my refuge = Life as my refuge. Here I notice that if I use the word Life it helps me to notice how I should be approaching life. Rather than trying to run to God as a refuge against life!
God the Provider = Life the Provider. Certainly life provides many things, but what we want? In the old way of turning to God and praying for things to be provided we were always like helpless children and what we wanted may or may not be provided. (Some religions claiming that only if you were virtuous or hard working did God provide.) But life seems to provide in no predictable pattern....or does it provide what our intentions are? What we co-create in alignment with life's energy?
This also syncs up very well with what both Walsh and Wayne Dyer (and countless others) say about manifesting. Dyer refers to The Universe (instead of God) and both talk about the Universe or Life as being neutral about what is created or provided. Ask for sorrow or anger and that can be provided. Ask for Love and joy and that can be provided. We need therefore to be conscious about what we ask for and where we put our attention because what we dwell upon Dyer says is what we manifest. Think endlessly "Oh I have so many bills to pay" and sure enough more bills will show up. Think endlessly "Oh my life is blessed" and sure enough more blessings will show up. So I would like to put my attention on the goodness of life and the love that is abundant in life. I think if I put my attention on love and goodness I'm liking to live Life more deeply, more consciously.
When we pray to God this often evokes a sense of receiving or being denied, of a "power over" or a parent or "the Santa Claus God" who I have written about in a previous blog. It is also to get mad at God for what we decide God has done. If we call this energy Life, it is I think still possible to pray to it, but it does sort of change the interaction. There is wonder, awe, gratitude and joy, and there is the attempt to perceive the Life Energy and to align with it. But any appealing to it...well you just have to go more into that co-creation or aligning the life energy with the bigger life energy. From my point of view that keeps me more true to how I want to pray anyway.
Joanna Macy talks about how in systems theory you have living parts that make up bigger living parts. So for example we have cells that make up organs (also parts of our life) which make up our live bodies and then our bodies join with other bodies to make up living communities, etc. She points out that these parts at each level cooperate to make the larger level function. But something much more profound is able to happen when any level has self-reflection upon itself as a separate living being and ALSO part of a living being. So if I engage in being consciously aware (mindfulness) of being a part of Life/God this is different than living as part of Life with no awareness of anything beyond my own self. It centers us into life itself.
Showing posts with label manifesting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manifesting. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Looking Backwards to the Present
I have been reading James Redfield's new novel: the Twelfth Insight. Without reading any reviews, I can predict that the reviewers say the novel was too much a regurgitation of his previous three novels. Perhaps a fair complaint. I do think that for those who have been troubled by wars fought for religious reasons and with concern for the Middle East they may find interesting his ideas about the shared roots of religions as a ground for connection. (Although this too is not the most original idea.)
While I certainly enjoyed revisiting what Redfield has to say about synchronistic events - always significant in my own faith life - what I did find interesting was Redfeld's idea that we can use intuition predicatively. In this novel as the main characters learn/remember to tune into syncrhonicities and the common bond between all of us, they learn when contemplating a possible step to see if they can picture the two most likely possibilities and to use the feedback loop of what they can picture and what they cannot as Light from the
Universe shed upon their path.
This has been helpful to me as I have been recently contemplating one of those places where the spiritual tradition I grew up in goes bump with the beliefs I have come to learn and trust in my adult life. So my tradition teaches me that when we consider a possible action, to listen in the silence for The Holy Author's divine guidance as to whether this is a right course of action for us. Certainly within the Christian tradition it frames God as having power over us, although I long ago released that belief for one that is more mutual and collaborative. There are models out there that talk about a co-creation process with God. That does not seem quite right either because it implies we know as much as the Creator which is far from my experience. But in my experience there is our own will and there is the Creator's intent for all life, and yes I like to believe or experience an intention for each of us as well. Perhaps that is simply our own soul's work and what we have come to do which can place us either in alignment with Spirit or out of alignment with Spirit.
I have written much in other entries about the delicate process of "listening" to God and how the Divine often speaks in symbolic language, metaphor, or in synchronicity. But this sort of begs the question of how we "plan" our lives. Christianity would suggest we should not plan our lives but listen for and be "obedient" to God's intention for our lives. (Or in some strands make our own choices while being obedient to Biblical directives). Some strands of new age thinking such as The Secret would seem to suggest that we put out our intention, vision or desire out to the Universe and just manifest that which we wish. I have deeply appreciated Neale Donald Walsch's attempt to readdress the messages from the Secret in his book: Happier than God. In this book Walsch clarifies that we can only align with the nature of the universe as it is which he says is all interconnected and for the Good of all. Thus he says when we attempt to manifest with either harmful intent or selfish intent we actually step out of alignment, and the messages we receive will simply bring us back into alignment for the common good.
So Walsch would say we could plan whatever we want as long as it aligned with the Universe. Wayne Dyer who of course writes extensively about this in his book The Power of Intention, as well as in his other books, also talks a great deal about how to be in alignment, how to avoid blocks and other pitfalls. But Dyer, while saying we can not be poor enough or sick enough to prevent other people from being poor or sick, is silent on the question of how we plan or whether our plans can be selfish or create negative effects for others.
Recently, I have been trying to discern whether to commit civil disobedience on behalf of climate change. In my old model I would listen and not act until I received a clear message to go forward. So far I have not received such a green light...although in both previous occasions in my life I contemplated a possible action with my mind analyzing the justice and injustice of the situation, and in both occasions just days before The Just One spoke powerfully and clearly with unmistakable direction right before the action with a power I could not have ignored.
In my new model I have been trying to hold a vision of the world re-emerging out of fossil fuel dominated world into one that uses sustainable alternative fuels. This is very challenging to hold a vision of since both the actions and mindsets that leads to carbon consumption are deeply embedded in our society. I know a visualizing process taught by Elise Boulding, the founder of modern Peace studies, which if engaged in with great detail can reveal strategic action, but this is different than a spiritual process. The process both Dyer and Walsch talk about would seem to suggest hold the big future vision, (not the yearning or you manifest the yearning) and then let it go in the confidence that the Universe will manifest it. Dyer does talk about working from the end which he describes as imagining a book already written and then writing it. This however still doesn't answer for me the question: how do we make yes/no decisions about possible actions? Oh, the moral from the immoral is fairly easy to discern, but should I take this or action or not is a different question?
This is where Redfield's concept of trying to picture a certain action and the other course (even if that is inaction) and see if we can picture it, provides, I think, an interesting intersection between these two paradigms. It suggests to me for the first time how to listen for the Divine Author's message regarding that which dwells in the future. When I tried to picture myself getting arrested I did not see it, but oddly it was because I did not really see the whole group getting arrested either! Perhaps this means Obama will not approve the XL pipeline. Or perhaps as happened in the past two occasions, that as events unfold a new Truth will plant itself in my heart with a correspondingly strong picture of that very arrest. My hope is in either, both? paradigms will be to listen in faithfulness and obedience to the Greatest Truth as it reveals itself.
While I certainly enjoyed revisiting what Redfield has to say about synchronistic events - always significant in my own faith life - what I did find interesting was Redfeld's idea that we can use intuition predicatively. In this novel as the main characters learn/remember to tune into syncrhonicities and the common bond between all of us, they learn when contemplating a possible step to see if they can picture the two most likely possibilities and to use the feedback loop of what they can picture and what they cannot as Light from the
Universe shed upon their path.
This has been helpful to me as I have been recently contemplating one of those places where the spiritual tradition I grew up in goes bump with the beliefs I have come to learn and trust in my adult life. So my tradition teaches me that when we consider a possible action, to listen in the silence for The Holy Author's divine guidance as to whether this is a right course of action for us. Certainly within the Christian tradition it frames God as having power over us, although I long ago released that belief for one that is more mutual and collaborative. There are models out there that talk about a co-creation process with God. That does not seem quite right either because it implies we know as much as the Creator which is far from my experience. But in my experience there is our own will and there is the Creator's intent for all life, and yes I like to believe or experience an intention for each of us as well. Perhaps that is simply our own soul's work and what we have come to do which can place us either in alignment with Spirit or out of alignment with Spirit.
I have written much in other entries about the delicate process of "listening" to God and how the Divine often speaks in symbolic language, metaphor, or in synchronicity. But this sort of begs the question of how we "plan" our lives. Christianity would suggest we should not plan our lives but listen for and be "obedient" to God's intention for our lives. (Or in some strands make our own choices while being obedient to Biblical directives). Some strands of new age thinking such as The Secret would seem to suggest that we put out our intention, vision or desire out to the Universe and just manifest that which we wish. I have deeply appreciated Neale Donald Walsch's attempt to readdress the messages from the Secret in his book: Happier than God. In this book Walsch clarifies that we can only align with the nature of the universe as it is which he says is all interconnected and for the Good of all. Thus he says when we attempt to manifest with either harmful intent or selfish intent we actually step out of alignment, and the messages we receive will simply bring us back into alignment for the common good.
So Walsch would say we could plan whatever we want as long as it aligned with the Universe. Wayne Dyer who of course writes extensively about this in his book The Power of Intention, as well as in his other books, also talks a great deal about how to be in alignment, how to avoid blocks and other pitfalls. But Dyer, while saying we can not be poor enough or sick enough to prevent other people from being poor or sick, is silent on the question of how we plan or whether our plans can be selfish or create negative effects for others.
Recently, I have been trying to discern whether to commit civil disobedience on behalf of climate change. In my old model I would listen and not act until I received a clear message to go forward. So far I have not received such a green light...although in both previous occasions in my life I contemplated a possible action with my mind analyzing the justice and injustice of the situation, and in both occasions just days before The Just One spoke powerfully and clearly with unmistakable direction right before the action with a power I could not have ignored.
In my new model I have been trying to hold a vision of the world re-emerging out of fossil fuel dominated world into one that uses sustainable alternative fuels. This is very challenging to hold a vision of since both the actions and mindsets that leads to carbon consumption are deeply embedded in our society. I know a visualizing process taught by Elise Boulding, the founder of modern Peace studies, which if engaged in with great detail can reveal strategic action, but this is different than a spiritual process. The process both Dyer and Walsch talk about would seem to suggest hold the big future vision, (not the yearning or you manifest the yearning) and then let it go in the confidence that the Universe will manifest it. Dyer does talk about working from the end which he describes as imagining a book already written and then writing it. This however still doesn't answer for me the question: how do we make yes/no decisions about possible actions? Oh, the moral from the immoral is fairly easy to discern, but should I take this or action or not is a different question?
This is where Redfield's concept of trying to picture a certain action and the other course (even if that is inaction) and see if we can picture it, provides, I think, an interesting intersection between these two paradigms. It suggests to me for the first time how to listen for the Divine Author's message regarding that which dwells in the future. When I tried to picture myself getting arrested I did not see it, but oddly it was because I did not really see the whole group getting arrested either! Perhaps this means Obama will not approve the XL pipeline. Or perhaps as happened in the past two occasions, that as events unfold a new Truth will plant itself in my heart with a correspondingly strong picture of that very arrest. My hope is in either, both? paradigms will be to listen in faithfulness and obedience to the Greatest Truth as it reveals itself.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Feng Shui: really?
Feng Shui...whatever. Next Fad. So then two friends stand in my home and whisper about bad Feng Shui and a colleague with whom I share an office completely rearranges the office (without my permission) stating she did it for "better Feng Shui". I am furious and say I'm going to change it back. "Just one week" she begs, explaining that she had did it to emphasize better abundance. "Just give it one week and see if the phone is not ringing off the hook with more clients". I find this completely unlikely but agree to leave it for a week in order to end the conflict. But bizarrely at the end of the week I have been swamped with calls of new clients....now what to think?
I let one of my two friends above lend me her book on Feng Shui which of course is based upon "ancient Chinese wisdom". I look at the Bagua chart, a sort of tic tac toe grid that one superimposes over ones house or a room:
abundance/finance reputation/fame romance/love
health/family center/spirituality creativity/children
self-knowledge/skills career/work influential people/travel
I consider the idea that all ancient wisdom must have some value to it or it would die in public awareness. I consider the 9 areas list and conclude that these are important areas of life. In fact if one were to list 9 things people care most about or consider most essential to a good life, I must admit this list would be it.
The book lists types of objects to emphasize or expand good fortune in each section, and things which are generally bad feng shui anywhere (dirt, chaos, disorder, dead things...well that makes sense). Most of this seems nonsense to me. However, as mentioned in my last post, at that moment in time I was trying to find a partner. So I review that chapter of the book. It talks about putting paired objects in that section of the house. I think of that will be easy I will just move my paired objects to there. However, after a quick search of my house I discover to my shock that I have only some salt and pepper shakers, candlestick holders and one box my sister gave me with two birds printed on it. There are however in my home many objects that celebrate the beauty and power of the individual. Even the painting by my grandmother that hang throughout my house, none have two of anything in them....ahh this is even a multi-generational message in my life. I have been taught self-sufficiency and independence, even isolation, but not cooperation, partnership or duel engagement!
This was my first real lesson in Feng Shui. It is not really about objects, it is about seeing your own consciousness. In fact I was most persuaded by a place in the book that said: "Do not be ruled by this, have fun with it." Having had some success in the romance department I decided I need more income in my life, so I turned to the "abundance" section. First lesson: notice it says abundance not money or income? As is always the case with Feng Shui one is invited to symbolize the desired outcome. What does more income actually look like? What do I want money for? Good questions. I also find myself strangely freed. I was raised in a religion that emphasizes simplicity. The pursuit of material wealth is bad and not of God. But this word abundance turns that on its head for me. Abundance I recognize is of the Divine Provider. The Source is where all abundance originates from. So I am freed to consider how to represent this in my home and in fact how to actually accomplish the increase in income I needed to provide for my family. In fact Feng Shui warns about houses with missing sectors and how to "correct" for this. As I thought back on homes I had lived in I was amazed to recognize that throughout my mostly poor adult years I had lived in countless homes that were without this sector!
In the influence people section I enjoyed creating a collage of the people who have actually influenced me and their quotes. Also posting pictures of places I want to travel to. I have enjoyed thinking about how I think about my self-knowledge, that which I have and that wish I would have. Same for my "fame" section. It was also fun to put up pictures of several generations of my family in the family section and equally fun to create a work space for creative endeavors in the creativity section. I have become many times more creative and recaptured a creative part of my heritage in so doing. For many of my clients the real work of feng shui is about clearing away the junk: the messes of an undigested life. It is an outer work that matches the inner work.
What questions will feng shui open about your life?
I let one of my two friends above lend me her book on Feng Shui which of course is based upon "ancient Chinese wisdom". I look at the Bagua chart, a sort of tic tac toe grid that one superimposes over ones house or a room:
abundance/finance reputation/fame romance/love
health/family center/spirituality creativity/children
self-knowledge/skills career/work influential people/travel
I consider the idea that all ancient wisdom must have some value to it or it would die in public awareness. I consider the 9 areas list and conclude that these are important areas of life. In fact if one were to list 9 things people care most about or consider most essential to a good life, I must admit this list would be it.
The book lists types of objects to emphasize or expand good fortune in each section, and things which are generally bad feng shui anywhere (dirt, chaos, disorder, dead things...well that makes sense). Most of this seems nonsense to me. However, as mentioned in my last post, at that moment in time I was trying to find a partner. So I review that chapter of the book. It talks about putting paired objects in that section of the house. I think of that will be easy I will just move my paired objects to there. However, after a quick search of my house I discover to my shock that I have only some salt and pepper shakers, candlestick holders and one box my sister gave me with two birds printed on it. There are however in my home many objects that celebrate the beauty and power of the individual. Even the painting by my grandmother that hang throughout my house, none have two of anything in them....ahh this is even a multi-generational message in my life. I have been taught self-sufficiency and independence, even isolation, but not cooperation, partnership or duel engagement!
This was my first real lesson in Feng Shui. It is not really about objects, it is about seeing your own consciousness. In fact I was most persuaded by a place in the book that said: "Do not be ruled by this, have fun with it." Having had some success in the romance department I decided I need more income in my life, so I turned to the "abundance" section. First lesson: notice it says abundance not money or income? As is always the case with Feng Shui one is invited to symbolize the desired outcome. What does more income actually look like? What do I want money for? Good questions. I also find myself strangely freed. I was raised in a religion that emphasizes simplicity. The pursuit of material wealth is bad and not of God. But this word abundance turns that on its head for me. Abundance I recognize is of the Divine Provider. The Source is where all abundance originates from. So I am freed to consider how to represent this in my home and in fact how to actually accomplish the increase in income I needed to provide for my family. In fact Feng Shui warns about houses with missing sectors and how to "correct" for this. As I thought back on homes I had lived in I was amazed to recognize that throughout my mostly poor adult years I had lived in countless homes that were without this sector!
In the influence people section I enjoyed creating a collage of the people who have actually influenced me and their quotes. Also posting pictures of places I want to travel to. I have enjoyed thinking about how I think about my self-knowledge, that which I have and that wish I would have. Same for my "fame" section. It was also fun to put up pictures of several generations of my family in the family section and equally fun to create a work space for creative endeavors in the creativity section. I have become many times more creative and recaptured a creative part of my heritage in so doing. For many of my clients the real work of feng shui is about clearing away the junk: the messes of an undigested life. It is an outer work that matches the inner work.
What questions will feng shui open about your life?
Friday, August 12, 2011
Manifesting Things
I started with manifesting people. I had just opened a private practice, and I had a small support committee. One of the people on it also had a private practice. She told me when she started that she had had a safety net: she delivered newspapers for a year. But she also told me: "don't worry the clients will come. Just visualize them coming. I do. Just imagine their feet walking into your office." This seemed like weird advice, but I was worried enough to try anything. I tried it; nothing happened.
But then after about 6 months when things were going a little better, I had some middle of the day spaces that it seemed no one wanted. I thought: "I wish maybe a low income client who is not working and available in the middle of the day could come then." Within an hour two low income clients available in the middle of the day called. Wow! Well coincidence....but I thought: "I would like to see a couple; I wonder if I could manifest that?" By the next day the couple had scheduled and come to see me. For months I wondered if it was a coincidence, but pretty much within days, any time I tried to think who I would like to see (including issues they might bring) it would show up! I have for 10 years now had a busy thriving practice. I wondered why the advice of my collegue had not worked in the beginning and then I realized. She had said: Visualize shoes walking in".....well I had absolutely no interest in seeing shoes! I wanted to see people.
But one of my best examples of manifesting things occurred around this same time. I wanted to get a favorite board game I remembered from childhood for my daughter. The game Masterpiece has cards with famous paintings on them which people bid for and try to win the most money - but it has the great educational value that you familiarize yourself with great masterpieces. I looked in several stores for it, but I could not find it. Finally, I looked online for it and discovered to my disappointment that it was no longer manufactured. Drat! Why do they drop all the good ones? So how was I going to get this game? Ahh I thought, maybe someone with grown children will have a yard sale and they will be getting rid of it.
Shortly thereafter, I was driving home through the alley behind my Condo with my daughter in the car, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big box was sitting next to someone's garbage with apparently some board games sticking out. I stopped the car immediately and hopped out. And there it was: Masterpiece! But even more mindboggling when I got it home, was it was in mint condition! It has never been used; the money was still in the original plastic bags. This sort of event is so precise that it defies (at least for me) any thought that this is just a coincidence. That incident made me a true believer that you can manifest what you want in an abundant universe. I eventually even manifested a husband this way, but that is another story.
But then after about 6 months when things were going a little better, I had some middle of the day spaces that it seemed no one wanted. I thought: "I wish maybe a low income client who is not working and available in the middle of the day could come then." Within an hour two low income clients available in the middle of the day called. Wow! Well coincidence....but I thought: "I would like to see a couple; I wonder if I could manifest that?" By the next day the couple had scheduled and come to see me. For months I wondered if it was a coincidence, but pretty much within days, any time I tried to think who I would like to see (including issues they might bring) it would show up! I have for 10 years now had a busy thriving practice. I wondered why the advice of my collegue had not worked in the beginning and then I realized. She had said: Visualize shoes walking in".....well I had absolutely no interest in seeing shoes! I wanted to see people.
But one of my best examples of manifesting things occurred around this same time. I wanted to get a favorite board game I remembered from childhood for my daughter. The game Masterpiece has cards with famous paintings on them which people bid for and try to win the most money - but it has the great educational value that you familiarize yourself with great masterpieces. I looked in several stores for it, but I could not find it. Finally, I looked online for it and discovered to my disappointment that it was no longer manufactured. Drat! Why do they drop all the good ones? So how was I going to get this game? Ahh I thought, maybe someone with grown children will have a yard sale and they will be getting rid of it.
Shortly thereafter, I was driving home through the alley behind my Condo with my daughter in the car, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big box was sitting next to someone's garbage with apparently some board games sticking out. I stopped the car immediately and hopped out. And there it was: Masterpiece! But even more mindboggling when I got it home, was it was in mint condition! It has never been used; the money was still in the original plastic bags. This sort of event is so precise that it defies (at least for me) any thought that this is just a coincidence. That incident made me a true believer that you can manifest what you want in an abundant universe. I eventually even manifested a husband this way, but that is another story.
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