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Showing posts with label oneness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oneness. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Bigger Love

My friend, ScottStabile, author of Big Love and Just Love, spoke to my heart, as he often does, in a recent post on his new platform Bigger Love with Scott Stabile. He eloquently expressed much of what I, and I suspect many of us, have experienced and possibly continue to experience. With his permission, I share his post below. I trust that it will speak to you, as well.

As you read it, I encourage you to remember the words of Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore from Keep a True Lent

"Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is harmonizing, constructive power…Love is that mighty power, that divine quality of God that is expressing through all [humankind] and cannot be suppressed by any outside force.”



Hi Friends,

Some days I go back and forth by the half hour between deep trust in life’s unfolding and deep anxiety over the state of our world. One moment I feel at peace knowing we are moving evermore toward greater consciousness, and the next I feel anguish in the face of our inhumanity. Perhaps you can relate.

I sat with a wise friend a couple months ago and spoke of my nagging despair, my inability sometimes to be with all the warring and hatred, and how I want to retreat from the world because of it. “No!” he said. “Your job is not to absorb the insane energy of this planet. Your job is to share your loving energy with this planet, and trust in what you have to share.” A simple thought really, and not one new to me. But the way he said it, with such clarity and urgency, struck me, registered, entered my being. To be clear, he was not suggesting I ignore the harsh realities of our world or pretend all is well when it clearly isn’t. He was reminding me not to get so lost in what’s dark and painful here that I forget the power of my own light.

A couple days ago the same friend shared the following words, by L.R. Knost:

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break. And all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you. Now that’s beautiful.

It’s easy to feel powerless when considering what we can actually do to create any real change in this world. How bright is our light, really? Easy to feel like it’s hopeless, that all is lost. But that can never be the truth, because if we’re here, living and breathing, shining in whatever way we shine, then all is not lost. In fact, all is possible. I don’t say that naively. My days as a Pollyanna are long behind me. I just don’t believe we can ever count out the power of love. Intentional, extravagant, unconditional love. Has there ever been a more potent force on this planet? I don’t think so. Will there ever be? Doubtful. We just have to get in the habit of using it. Of becoming it. Of letting love become us.

I suspect I will always, to some degree, move between trust and anxiety, peace and despair, where our world is concerned. Look around. We humans are a profoundly sick species, terrified to reflect honestly on our delusions and take responsibility for our myriad hypocrisies. We are unwilling to change our minds and unable to acknowledge our wrongs. Most of us, most of the time, anyway. Myself included, some of the time, anyway. We are too often petty and unforgiving and unconscionably violent.

And still, we long for love. To give and receive it. We long to be seen, and appreciated, and loved for who we are. All of us have this longing. And so, love will never stop having a hold on us, no matter how unconscious we become, no matter how committed to hatred and war. Beneath our vast delusions, beyond whatever vile muck we deny or uncover, love waits. Ready. Willing. Able. My hope lives in this belief.

I don’t know much for certain, but I know that love remains, always, everywhere. It is within us, outside of us, ever-present even in its invisibility. And because it’s everywhere, forever with us, we have access to it in every moment. We simply have to choose it. To commit to love, and choose it, throughout each day every day. Intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. Choose love. In our relationships with ourselves, and with others. In our work, in our activism, in our anger. Choose love. In our connection to the earth, to our food, to the plants and animals, to the Source that created and lives within all things. Choose love. We have to be willing to stand in our light and declare ourselves messengers of love.

Our world is broken, and love is the glue. We are ripped apart and love is the thread that will mend us. I believe this as much as I believe anything. Every act of kindness inspires more kindness. My vulnerability invites you to be vulnerable. Your compassion awakens my compassion. Our collective courage invites courage in others. We are always affecting each other. Our love, for ourselves and for one another, is the one thing that stands to create healing for real. Not with time, but with intention.

Are you ready, willing to stand in your power and love yourself and everyone else, too? No matter what? I am, and I hope you’ll join me. We need us.

I love us, and I believe in us,

Scott

 

Again, the words of Charles Fillmore and an affirmation for us to use and take to mind and heart,

"I now firmly declare that [Love] is expressing through me, and that no environment or external condition can hinder it. Any unloving condition of the world is no bar to my exercise of love; in fact, it is an incentive.”

For more information on Scott and his work, please visit his website – ScottStabile.com.

To support Scott’s work and keep up with his inspiring posts, please subscribe at – ScottStabile.substack.com.

You may also like to consider joining Scott in his upcoming online workshop – ImagineIt! Create a more fulfilling life with Intentional Visualization – beginning January 3.

My friend and yours, Robin Hackett, wrote and recorded a powerful song that reminds us of the power of Love – Listen Here

 

 

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Spiritual Awakening - Anytime Anywhere

I am writing this while still on vacation in the Colorado Mountains. Thanks to the generosity of some loving USCD members, I have had the opportunity to spend the better part of this past week surrounded by the beauty and serenity of nature.

It was my intention to take this time to be quiet and introspective without the influence of technology or media. That lasted about two days. While I did devote some quality time to meditation, silence, writing, and simply sitting on the deck observing the wonders of the natural world, I found myself getting just a little stir-crazy after a while.

I have friends and colleagues who have expounded on the glorious benefits of 9-day silent retreats. I fail to understand how they can withstand that much silence. After a while, it became for me just another thing to do, something to accomplish rather than a gift that I was giving myself. So, I decided to let go of this as another spiritual goal.

Yes, I have some judgment of myself about not being able to do it. Yes, I am doing my best to release it.


Ultimately, I arrived at the insight that spiritual awakening does not only happen for us in the silence of prayer or meditation. It does not only happen when we remove ourselves from the world of technology and media. It does not only happen when we are seeking it. In fact, it rarely if ever happens when we are seeking it. Instead, it happens in every moment of every day when we are open and receptive to it.

Every tree, every bird, every blade of grass, every rabbit, every squirrel, every elk, every deer, every person, indeed, every thing is alive with the One Life Energy and every moment is alive with the potential and possibility for us to awaken to and bear witness to it.

We awaken to our spiritual nature, not only by connecting consciously with our individual expression of the One Life Energy, but when we consciously connect with the spiritual nature of all creation.

For many, including me, being in nature helps to facilitate this awakening. However, it is not the source. The awakening happens within us as we recognize and deeply realize the One Life Energy that not only expresses as all visible creation, but also exists in the field of invisible Life Energy in the space between.

We are ever connected in and through this One Life Energy by whatever name or nature we know it to be. We only need open our hearts to sense it.

I offer this as a suggested practice –

Select an object of focus. I suggest a plant, animal, or something that you consider sentient

Close your eyes and take a deep cleansing breath

Breathe  deeply and focus your awareness in the area of your physical heart

Take another deep breath and invite your awareness to sink deeper into your emotional heart

Stop for a moment to feel what is arising there, without resistance or judgment

Take another deep breath and invite your awareness to sink even deeper into your spiritual heart

Feel your spiritual heart open wide

If you sense any resistance or heaviness, keep breathing deeply until you sense it open

Softly open your eyes so that they are not completely focused but a bit blurry

Gaze upon your chosen object of focus

Invite your awareness to observe the energy field around it

Gaze deeper and invite your awareness to witness the energy field within it

With your heart wide open, invite awareness of the energy field that is flowing between you

You may see it as color, as waves, as sparkling light. Just allow it to reveal itself to you

Bear witness to the energy connection you share with this object

Breathe deeply, focusing in your heart once again

Bring your awareness back to your emotional heart noticing what is arising there, again without resistance or judgment

Once again, with a deep breath bring your awareness back to your physical heart

Breathe normally and when you are ready open your eyes

I have recorded this visualization. Please click the link below to listen and follow.

I encourage this as a practice, especially when feeling separate and alone. It is a clear reminder that we are always connected to and a part of the One Life Energy that imbues all. Every moment can be a spiritual awakening, anywhere, anytime.