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.
Showing posts with label synchronisity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label synchronisity. Show all posts
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Saturday, September 22, 2012
How Does God speak?
People often complain that God is silent or at least very unclear! The God of the Old Testament leaves 12 commandments, parts seas, punishes an innocent man (Job) just because he can, and says clearly you shall have no other God but me. (ie the claim in strongly made for monotheism.) The God of the New Testament says Love is the only commandment and works miracles through his son Jesus. (speaking therefore thru a person and also thru miracles.) Unfortunately, most people do not find these answers very helpful in figuring out the role of God in the daily world they live in. As always, I encourage people to find theological answers, from where ever you find them, that serve you in your life.
I have a client who says that because she has never heard God's voice she feels God is a Creator who finished the job and watches with mild interest, but is "definitely not interventionist." For me this simply returns us to the idea of how do you hear Inward Voice? If we are looking for a thundering voice in the wilderness, commandments on a tablet, a burning bush, or the fulfillment of a prophecy then most people would conclude that indeed God is dead. But I think we have been done a big disservice by being taught that that is how God's voice is heard. Most modern clergy would urge people to turn to prayer and listen for answers, but again I don't think much instruction is given on recognizing the answers.
This reminds me of the joke (previously related in another post-clearly one I'm fond of) : A man is in a flood and he goes on the roof of his house and prays to God to save him. As he watches the water rising, another man floats by on a log and offers him to get on "no he says, I will be saved." After a while more a man comes by in a row boat and offers him to get in. He again refuses saying he will be saved. With alarm he sees the water now reaching the roof and as he stands ankle deep a helicopter comes and lowers a rope. He again refuses shouting "I will be saved". But he drowns, and after he does he gets to the gates of Heaven and he says to St. Peter "I prayed to God to be saved, why did he let me drown." And Peter says with annoyance: "For heaven sakes, he sent you a log, a boat, and a helicopter....what more did you want."
For me this "joke" speaks to the idea that we can fail to hear God's answer to our prayers if we have preconceived ideas of what the answer will be. Not only do we have to offer the desires of our heart and then let go of the outcome, but we have to be able to "hear" with special ears. My experience of how God speaks is on bill board signs, thru nature, thru other people's mouths, through lines in various books, thru amazing sychronicties, etc. But I have had to learn how to recognize the sort of invisible "red circle" around the answer. One of my friend's told me she had learned to pray and ask for a "very clear unmistakable signs" to be given. At first I thought "Well that is a lot of hutzpah telling God how to deliver the answer". However, then I realized: "but I do need for the answer to be clear." So now I ask that too sometimes.
I remember hearing a man giving a talk, and he talked about praying for direction as to whether he should go toDivinity School Divinity School
I know there are those who will still say both the joke and the story of the hawks are coincidences, not signs from God. Those folks will also scoff at the popular practice of asking something in prayer and opening a holy book (or I find any meaningful book will do) randomly to a page and understanding that something in the content of the page contains the answer. They say: "wishful thinking. Reading into it the answer you want, etc." Except that the friend mentioned in that story did not want to go to divinity school. He was already examining the question because of other spiritual nigglings he had received. Many ethical humanists will also argue that this is all just a fancy way of listening to our conscience which is innately human inborn trait. I do agree it is innate. However, I also happen to think that having one is one way that God calls us to a certain path. So the whistle blower who takes great personal risk to serve the good of the many; the spark that makes us tell the truth instead of a lie, the civil servant or the Good Samaritan that risks their own safety to save another, I think listen to the Inward Light that burns in each of us, speaking of the Greater Good that the Creator desires for us all.
But I must also acknowledge that another difference between the skeptics, or the Humanist, and those of us who believe that God does speak to us, is actually having a spiritual experience. When one has had an experience of an answer so clear and so undeniable that to deny it would be a kind of blaspheme, or has had an Experience of The Presense that was overpowering, or life changing, or as some would say a second birth, then there is a kind of certainty that comes. This certainty is not faith, any more than it is faith to believe that the sun exists during the night time. I have met people whose fear and skeptism was so thick that I do not know how they could have such an experience - how they could notice the log, the boat or the helicopter as a Presence. In fact I have met people who have gotten in that boat and helicopter and talk about their great good fortune and how they have worked hard for everything they have, noticing not the abundance of Grace they have experienced. But I have also met people who earnestly seek and long for that confirming Presence and haven’t found it. I do not know why they have not had it - other than perhaps again expecting it to look a certain way - like Jesus or Mohammad or a parting of the seas. I would encourage those who seek such experiences to be open to it looking any sort of way, but also being able to answer your question "Is this what I think it is" with at least 4 more hawks.
This is also to say that if you want God to speak to you than you must be in dialogue; you must start the conversation. Funny how friends never call if you never call them. So if we ask The Divine Teacher for answers we are much more likely to get them, if we ask the Divine Mother for comfort we are much more likely to get it. If we ask the Divine Provider for our hearts desire, we are much more likely to receive it. If we sit silently saying nothing, or even brooding about the lack of communication from God than we are likely to continue to get silence back. When we put the question out there than we can wait for the answer that comes not immediately, but in a sort of metaphorical language, which is still quite obvious when the answer appears before you.
I have a client who says that because she has never heard God's voice she feels God is a Creator who finished the job and watches with mild interest, but is "definitely not interventionist." For me this simply returns us to the idea of how do you hear Inward Voice? If we are looking for a thundering voice in the wilderness, commandments on a tablet, a burning bush, or the fulfillment of a prophecy then most people would conclude that indeed God is dead. But I think we have been done a big disservice by being taught that that is how God's voice is heard. Most modern clergy would urge people to turn to prayer and listen for answers, but again I don't think much instruction is given on recognizing the answers.
This reminds me of the joke (previously related in another post-clearly one I'm fond of) : A man is in a flood and he goes on the roof of his house and prays to God to save him. As he watches the water rising, another man floats by on a log and offers him to get on "no he says, I will be saved." After a while more a man comes by in a row boat and offers him to get in. He again refuses saying he will be saved. With alarm he sees the water now reaching the roof and as he stands ankle deep a helicopter comes and lowers a rope. He again refuses shouting "I will be saved". But he drowns, and after he does he gets to the gates of Heaven and he says to St. Peter "I prayed to God to be saved, why did he let me drown." And Peter says with annoyance: "For heaven sakes, he sent you a log, a boat, and a helicopter....what more did you want."
For me this "joke" speaks to the idea that we can fail to hear God's answer to our prayers if we have preconceived ideas of what the answer will be. Not only do we have to offer the desires of our heart and then let go of the outcome, but we have to be able to "hear" with special ears. My experience of how God speaks is on bill board signs, thru nature, thru other people's mouths, through lines in various books, thru amazing sychronicties, etc. But I have had to learn how to recognize the sort of invisible "red circle" around the answer. One of my friend's told me she had learned to pray and ask for a "very clear unmistakable signs" to be given. At first I thought "Well that is a lot of hutzpah telling God how to deliver the answer". However, then I realized: "but I do need for the answer to be clear." So now I ask that too sometimes.
I remember hearing a man giving a talk, and he talked about praying for direction as to whether he should go to
I know there are those who will still say both the joke and the story of the hawks are coincidences, not signs from God. Those folks will also scoff at the popular practice of asking something in prayer and opening a holy book (or I find any meaningful book will do) randomly to a page and understanding that something in the content of the page contains the answer. They say: "wishful thinking. Reading into it the answer you want, etc." Except that the friend mentioned in that story did not want to go to divinity school. He was already examining the question because of other spiritual nigglings he had received. Many ethical humanists will also argue that this is all just a fancy way of listening to our conscience which is innately human inborn trait. I do agree it is innate. However, I also happen to think that having one is one way that God calls us to a certain path. So the whistle blower who takes great personal risk to serve the good of the many; the spark that makes us tell the truth instead of a lie, the civil servant or the Good Samaritan that risks their own safety to save another, I think listen to the Inward Light that burns in each of us, speaking of the Greater Good that the Creator desires for us all.
But I must also acknowledge that another difference between the skeptics, or the Humanist, and those of us who believe that God does speak to us, is actually having a spiritual experience. When one has had an experience of an answer so clear and so undeniable that to deny it would be a kind of blaspheme, or has had an Experience of The Presense that was overpowering, or life changing, or as some would say a second birth, then there is a kind of certainty that comes. This certainty is not faith, any more than it is faith to believe that the sun exists during the night time. I have met people whose fear and skeptism was so thick that I do not know how they could have such an experience - how they could notice the log, the boat or the helicopter as a Presence. In fact I have met people who have gotten in that boat and helicopter and talk about their great good fortune and how they have worked hard for everything they have, noticing not the abundance of Grace they have experienced. But I have also met people who earnestly seek and long for that confirming Presence and haven’t found it. I do not know why they have not had it - other than perhaps again expecting it to look a certain way - like Jesus or Mohammad or a parting of the seas. I would encourage those who seek such experiences to be open to it looking any sort of way, but also being able to answer your question "Is this what I think it is" with at least 4 more hawks.
This is also to say that if you want God to speak to you than you must be in dialogue; you must start the conversation. Funny how friends never call if you never call them. So if we ask The Divine Teacher for answers we are much more likely to get them, if we ask the Divine Mother for comfort we are much more likely to get it. If we ask the Divine Provider for our hearts desire, we are much more likely to receive it. If we sit silently saying nothing, or even brooding about the lack of communication from God than we are likely to continue to get silence back. When we put the question out there than we can wait for the answer that comes not immediately, but in a sort of metaphorical language, which is still quite obvious when the answer appears before you.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Recoknowing..or spiritual nigglings
Recently in a conversation with another person she came up with the word "recoknowing". What is this? It is a brilliant way to describe the spiritual experience of knowing something on a deep or inner level and being mindful enough to recognize it as truth - truth from the Source. Not long before in a conversation with a client we addressed the topic of "communication with God". My client felt very frustrated that there was not/is not enough communication with God. This of course brought up the question of how do we know when God is speaking? How do we hear God? (I have loved the UCC banner from a few years ago that says: “God is not done speaking.”)
It became clear to me during the course of talking with my client that if we have a very precise, narrow or anthropomorphic idea of what God's communication is like, then a great deal of communication can occur that will go right by us. It reminded me of the old joke about the person in a huge flood who goes up on the roof of their house and prays for God to deliver them. First a person comes by floating on a big log and offers space on the log. The person says no feeling the log is too small and too risky. Then someone comes by in a row boat and offers help - no the roof dweller says, feeling confident that God will save them. Finally a helicopter come by and lowers a rope, but the roof dweller again refuses feeling the rope and the ascent to the ‘copter is way to scary. Eventually the person drowns, and when they go to Heaven they rather reproachfully say to God: "I prayed for your help. Why did you not save me?" God replies: "I sent you a log, a boat and a helicopter - what more did you want?"
I wonder if we do not often missed God's communication in much the same way, not seeing it in the "ordinary" or human language it may come in. It has been both a joy and a frustration in my life to try to understand the synchronistic or metaphorical way God may sometimes speak to us. But if you ask people to tell examples of synchronistic events that have happened in their life - often at very critical turning points, some of the stories will actually send shivers up your spine.
I have always been both fascinated and horrified at the same time by the stories after 9/11 of people who were suppose to be in the Towers that day, or on those flights who weren't: the person who didn't go to work that day because he was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten, the woman who broke the heel on her high heels and stopped to have them fixed, the person who went out on an errand, the person who was fired the week before - or the person who "missed their plane" or more tragically the man who was on the plane because he rescheduled to spend the night before at home with his wife for her birthday. Are these all simply coincidences or did Spirit speak to each of those people calling them to certain choices they made that day or week?
A friend of mine's young dog chewed on her glasses scratching them. The only way she could get a new pair was to have another examination done, the first in four year - only to discover that she had severe sight threatening Glaucoma. Coincidence, or Spirit speaking? Another friend happened by a series of unusual turn of events to be at a meeting with a man who sold supplemental health insurance. She heard his pitch for a special cancer rider which could be added to your policy which paid all uncovered co-pays and lost wages if you had treatment for cancer. Something in her just nudged her to do it. 6 months later she was diagnosed with colon cancer; the policy made the different for her as a single person going through 9 months of chemotherapy. Serendipity, or the Holy One whispering within?
Some denominations tell stories of the faithful following God's direction so literally that they would come to an intersection in their horse and buggy and wait until they sensed which direction to go next. John Woolman, a famous Quaker, journaled of feeling called to go to Barbados to preach against slavery, buying the ticket on a ship and traveling all the way to the port and then at the port getting a "message" that he had completed what God had required of him and turning around going home! Madness or faithfulness to a message received?
Have you ever felt sort of driven to tell another person something? Not because you were trying to persuade them of a given point or tell them what to do, but just felt it was important to communicate some information, inspiration or encouragement to another? This is an almost daily experience for me. Sometimes the words are sort of shrugged off with a sort of "oh right, whatever", but more often they are received with great gratitude and even sometimes with a "thank you I have been really thinking about this, looking for this communication." This I think is an example of how God taps us on the shoulder and asks us to minister to each other, therefore using our mouths as the vessels that deliver the messages.
It became clear to me during the course of talking with my client that if we have a very precise, narrow or anthropomorphic idea of what God's communication is like, then a great deal of communication can occur that will go right by us. It reminded me of the old joke about the person in a huge flood who goes up on the roof of their house and prays for God to deliver them. First a person comes by floating on a big log and offers space on the log. The person says no feeling the log is too small and too risky. Then someone comes by in a row boat and offers help - no the roof dweller says, feeling confident that God will save them. Finally a helicopter come by and lowers a rope, but the roof dweller again refuses feeling the rope and the ascent to the ‘copter is way to scary. Eventually the person drowns, and when they go to Heaven they rather reproachfully say to God: "I prayed for your help. Why did you not save me?" God replies: "I sent you a log, a boat and a helicopter - what more did you want?"
I wonder if we do not often missed God's communication in much the same way, not seeing it in the "ordinary" or human language it may come in. It has been both a joy and a frustration in my life to try to understand the synchronistic or metaphorical way God may sometimes speak to us. But if you ask people to tell examples of synchronistic events that have happened in their life - often at very critical turning points, some of the stories will actually send shivers up your spine.
I have always been both fascinated and horrified at the same time by the stories after 9/11 of people who were suppose to be in the Towers that day, or on those flights who weren't: the person who didn't go to work that day because he was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten, the woman who broke the heel on her high heels and stopped to have them fixed, the person who went out on an errand, the person who was fired the week before - or the person who "missed their plane" or more tragically the man who was on the plane because he rescheduled to spend the night before at home with his wife for her birthday. Are these all simply coincidences or did Spirit speak to each of those people calling them to certain choices they made that day or week?
A friend of mine's young dog chewed on her glasses scratching them. The only way she could get a new pair was to have another examination done, the first in four year - only to discover that she had severe sight threatening Glaucoma. Coincidence, or Spirit speaking? Another friend happened by a series of unusual turn of events to be at a meeting with a man who sold supplemental health insurance. She heard his pitch for a special cancer rider which could be added to your policy which paid all uncovered co-pays and lost wages if you had treatment for cancer. Something in her just nudged her to do it. 6 months later she was diagnosed with colon cancer; the policy made the different for her as a single person going through 9 months of chemotherapy. Serendipity, or the Holy One whispering within?
Some denominations tell stories of the faithful following God's direction so literally that they would come to an intersection in their horse and buggy and wait until they sensed which direction to go next. John Woolman, a famous Quaker, journaled of feeling called to go to Barbados to preach against slavery, buying the ticket on a ship and traveling all the way to the port and then at the port getting a "message" that he had completed what God had required of him and turning around going home! Madness or faithfulness to a message received?
Have you ever felt sort of driven to tell another person something? Not because you were trying to persuade them of a given point or tell them what to do, but just felt it was important to communicate some information, inspiration or encouragement to another? This is an almost daily experience for me. Sometimes the words are sort of shrugged off with a sort of "oh right, whatever", but more often they are received with great gratitude and even sometimes with a "thank you I have been really thinking about this, looking for this communication." This I think is an example of how God taps us on the shoulder and asks us to minister to each other, therefore using our mouths as the vessels that deliver the messages.
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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