Copyright Tam Black 2018 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
Increasing our thoughts of Love and our attitude of service dispels all fear of lack and limitation. As we serve more people with Love, money and wealth flow abundantly to us. We use money and wealth with love and wisdom to create lives we love through our highest vision.
Sharing
“If everyone works diligently and with love, there will be peace throughout the world.” ~Haidakhan Baba
What is True Wealth? What is Real Abundance?
Did you know that it’s estimated that about 5 million people die each year due to unclean drinking water?
One out of six children — roughly 100 million — in developing countries is underweight. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) the deaths in children under age five – 3.1 million children each year.
Each year, over 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence. Violence is among the leading causes of death for people aged 15–44 years worldwide.
The Four Noble Truths of Buddha Dharma states 1) as a human, there is suffering in life. 2) The good news is that we can understand the causes of that suffering and 3) that suffering has an end. 4) we find the end of suffering through the path of living ethically, meditating, and developing wisdom.
Suffering can end. Real wealth and abundance is the Peace at the end of suffering.
We can find practical solutions to end human suffering. There are solutions even now. We must serve each other, all over the earth, to relieve suffering. There is no Peace until there is Peace for all.
Copyright Tam Black 2018 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
Today, relax with confidence in the activity of your Inner Divine Mind. Allow it to express its true nature of all-sufficiency and all-supply in your life and affairs. Today, your only responsibility is to protect your own Loving Presence from thoughts that block its flow. If you feel uncertain, remember your Source; if you feel weak, remember your Inner Flow; if you feel doubt, assure yourself of your Inner Knowing and be free.
Sharing
One of the main sub-themes of A Course in Miracles is how the ego believes in itself over and above God. The ego sees itself as more powerful than God. The Course calls this a belief in usurpation–the belief that we can usurp the power of God.
This belief is the cause for human fear, projection, and distortion. Understanding this is the solution to overcoming fear, projection, and distortion. The bottom line is that we cannot and will never be able to overpower God. When we let go of the idea that we can (Atonement), forgive ourselves for trying, and submit to (cooperate with), Divine Power, we enter reality and understand that all the ego’s machinations against God are non-existent because in Divine Reality, they couldnever happen.
Listening to the ego’s voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God, and that a part of Him has been torn away by you. (A Course in Miracles, Chapter Five – Healing and Wholeness, The Ego’s Use of Guilt)
All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred. (A Course in Miracles , Chapter Two – The Separation and the Atonement, The Origins of Separation)
It has taken time for me to develop my listening, so that I can hear when the ego is doing this usurpation thing in my head.
I “heard it” on the very first read of the very first sentence of the Guiding Thought. Today, relax with confidence in the activity of your Inner Divine Mind. The ego’s response was not so much words as it was a feeling of:
My little self did not want to hear anything about having confidence in Inner Divine Mind.
Funny that this is exactly what the Guiding Thought is suggesting to protect against. Today, your only responsibility is to protect your own Loving Presence from thoughts that block its flow.
One of my best friends practices Buddha Dharma and tells me often about the “I see you” game (say that like you are saying “peekaboo”). It’s a way to playfully tell your ego-thoughts that they can’t hide. When a “negative” thought comes up, pretend it’s a child doing something “naughty” and just tell it, “I see you”. This brings awareness without judgment. Seeing it angrily, or guiltily just feeds it with that energy. Noticing it playfully feeds it with transformational awareness and love.
Now aware of it, what do you do? Well, what did I do? I reminded myself of the Truth, which is that the ego cannot usurp the power of God, Divine Mind. When I believe that the ego can do this, I have put my faith in something that does not exist. When I put my faith in something that does not exist, I am inviting fear and distortion.
Then, I reminded myself what I want:
I want the certainty of Source, the strength of Inner Flow, the assurance of my Inner Knowing. I want to be free.
The combination of “I see you” and reminding yourself of the deepest truth of what you want immediately interrupt the ego’s attempts to usurp your Divine Self. Next time it happens you’ll be even more ready to interrupt and diffuse the ego.
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Cracking The Oyster
Happy Saturday! Welcome to Day 29!
Ahhhhhh! Well, Sus has been taking her time getting the articles to me the last several days, can you tell? LOL!
So, today it’s not so late (though it’s appropriately weekend late, I think), at least not so late people may not read it until tomorrow…LATE. I’ll just say, it’s been one of those weeks where you just have no idea what’s going to happen from one moment to the next (EXCITING!); it’s been up, it’s been down, it’s been…oh, yes, it’s definitely BEEN! And it is GOOD to see Sus is, how shall I say, “back on track”…even though she’s hit a block…(that IS normal here, even if it’s a bit late in the Journey…lol!). 😉
So, having said that, I’ll say this…
Grab yourself a temperature appropriate beverage, get to your favorite cushy reading spot, and as always…
We extend the Love that we are, for that is all we truly are. As we learn to be aware, to understand and to Know our own will as Love, and make choices according to that will, our life experiences become worthy of us. Expressing our Self that is wholly Love and United with All is the only choice that is worthwhile. It is the only thing that brings us satisfaction, the only choice that allows us to experience our Self—the Love that we are. My-your-our- freedom depends on our right choices, depends on our choosing what is worthy and what is not; it depends on me, depends on you, depends on us.
Sharing
I was reading the Shakyamuni Buddha Puja (Prayer) this morning, because I love Buddha Dharma, and I love prayers, so…I checked out this particular prayer this morning.
I started reading it and my brain shut down.
Here’s a sample from the very beginning, see if your brain doesn’t shut down too:
In its center, let there be a palace, arrayed with the seven precious things, most brilliant; emitting powerful beams of light that completely fill measureless worlds; of the limitless extent, containing infinite different, well-proportioned dwellings; of the sphere of those who have completely transcended the three realms, arisen from the superior roots of virtue of those who have transcended the world; marked by the utterly pure and dominating knowledge; the abode of the tathagatas, with a community of bodhisattvas; frequented by infinite gods, nagas, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kinnaras, great serpent-demons, human beings and spirits; (And yes, right about here, you may find yourself completely checked out) fixed in joy in the taste of the Dharma and great bliss; causing all the goals of every sentient being to be attained; free of every stain of harmful defilement, bereft of all maras, a place of the manifestation of tathagatas, excelling the manifestation of all things; a vehicle of detachment (from samsara) through mindfulness, wisdom and great realization, and quietude and insight; entered by the door of deliverance – emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness; resting on an array of kings of jewel lotuses adorned with infinite qualities, let the great palace appear.
Seventeen pages it went on like this. Did I mention I love prayers, and I love Buddha Dharma (teaching)? I can spend hours meditating, reading, praying, but dang if that prayer just wasn’t too, too much. I know this is why I am not “Buddhist”, and why I do not study and teach Buddhism–it feels too cluttered to me; it feels like the words themselves obfuscate and confuse the teaching and the understanding. This is why (IMHO), the greatest Buddhist teachers are the ones who use the plainest language (like Pema Chodron); the language of traditional Buddhism is a lot to sift through, and it’s really great when someone interprets it for me. Yet, I also know that in the language of traditional Buddhist teaching, there is real Truth, real gems. I just can’t get through it.
But I can get through A Course in Miracles. Where I can’t sit for a few minutes reading a Buddhist prayer, I can sit for hours reading ACIM. I can also spend hours reading things like the Revelations of Divine Love, written by Julian of Norwich or The Philosophy of Guru Goraknath, by Akshaya Banerjea, or even books by Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa, or His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So, why couldn’t I get through that Buddhist prayer?
A friend of mine asked me the other day what makes some teachings more “right” than others. What makes some teachers or teachings “better” than others? On the one hand, there are teachings that are more complete than others, and some teachers who are more pure (less ego, more Divine Voice), but ultimately, God is speaking to all of us, all the time, drawing us to the Divine through everything, drawing us to be our Holy Selves.
So the question is simply: What speaks to you? Investigate this. Investigate yourself, so that you get an accurate answer, so that you know what to listen for and to.
As you move through life and your search for God, listen to what speaks to you. Look for God everywhere (because God is everywhere, all the time). Depend on the Voice of Truth to guide you, and don’t rely on something because someone else tells you to. Be flexible, rather than rigid. Be intelligent and investigate teachings, don’t just blindly accept what someone is saying.
“Without understanding how your inner nature evolves, how can you possibly discover eternal happiness? Where is eternal happiness? It’s not in the sky or in the jungle; you won’t find it in the air or under the ground. Everlasting happiness is within you, within your psyche, your consciousness, your mind. That’s why it’s important that you investigate the nature of your own mind.” -Lama Thubten Yeshe
Journey of the Heart – Day 26 Susan Billmaier for susanwithpearls
Guiding Thought
We listen to our hearts and with our hearts.
Our hearts pay attention to each other; we listen to each other’s inner voice, the unspoken words.
We care, and we attend with love to each other’s deeper, silent needs, asking each other’s heart, “How may I strengthen you and raise your energy?”
-Play the Guiding Thought here (loops automatically). Journey of the Heart audio created by Brad Vanlandingham for Susanwithpearls-
Sharing
“The basic nature of sentient beings is the capacity for enlightenment…
To understand that all sentient beings possess the foundation for becoming enlightened, you need analytical wisdom. First, you need to understand that all your problems stem from your mind’s mistaken view of yourself, of other people, and of all things existing in and of themselves. When you see that this is a mistake, you realize that you can become enlightened, after which you can extend this realization to all sentient beings…this lays the groundwork for developing a desire to help everyone toward enlightenment…
With it, you can engender a strong aspiration to help others by achieving your own enlightenment.”
Becoming Enlightened
His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
Do you see that we are doing this right now? We are, “engendering a strong aspiration to help others by achieving our own enlightenment.” This Journey, this day, this moment, we are doing it. Let’s look at the quote from the Dalai Lama in the context of the Journey:
First, we need analytical wisdom (thank God!). What does that do for us? We use analytical wisdom to look at our thoughts, to observe our minds, and to discern how we are thinking and then decide if that is how we want to be thinking.
This quote from the Dalai Lama is (of course) from a Buddhist perspective. But analytical wisdom can apply to any framework; analytical wisdom is about being aware of how you think, in order to choose how you want to think.
Many people know how they want to think (and most people think they already are thinking how they want to think). People (in general…I know this is a wide assumption, but bear with me) want to be righteous, upstanding, good parents, good partners, good people. Someone once said to me, “People don’t do things because they think it’s wrong. People do things because they think it’s right.” And I think that is correct, for the most part. People do things because they think what they are doing is right.
Yet, this “right thinking” can cause a lot of pain, struggle, effort, stress for the person and for others. Why? “All your problems stem from your mind’s mistaken view of yourself, of other people, and of all things existing in and of themselves.”
What the Dalai Lama is saying here is that the underlying thoughts about what it means to be “right” are really wrong (“mistaken”). So, when a person is doing what they think is right, there is a good chance they are really thinking or acting from a mistaken viewpoint.
The mistaken viewpoint, according to the Dalai Lama is, “people and things exist in and of themselves.” In A Course in Miracles, this would be called Separation. In Buddha Dharma, the “correct” way of thinking is Dependent Arising: all things and people are dependent upon all things and people; in A Course in Miracles the corrective is Atonement: At-One-Ment.
This is why we need to begin with analytical wisdom. Where do our thoughts originate? In a framework that includes others, or excludes them? In a thought process that sees others as separate from ourselves, or as equal with ourselves?
Every sentient being has the capacity for enlightenment. These Journeys are designed from this foundation. Their contemplative nature provokes your analytical wisdom and asks you to think about what you think, and what you want to think. This is one reason there can be disruptive thoughts during the Journey; your mind is vying with itself over its dominant thoughts. The Journeys give you thoughts of Oneness, of Love, of Peace, if you choose to accept them and replaces thoughts of separation or disharmony with them. The rounds are designed to bring you to a place of inclusion, so you learn to have thoughts that consider others naturally.
Our hearts pay attention to each other; we listen to each other’s inner voice, the unspoken words. We care, and we attend with love to each other’s deeper, silent needs, asking each other’s heart, “How may I strengthen you and raise your energy?”
Do you want to become enlightened? Do you believe it’s possible?
I do.
And I sincerely want to help strengthen and raise your energy. I have a strong desire to help you to enlightenment. That’s why I’m here.
SusanWithPearls 