by John McCaughey • The other day it was a bright sunny day at the ranch, and I was washing off a piece of equipment near some pine trees. I’ve been particularly fond of these trees and knew I could take the time to give them a bath and a drink at the same time. I aimed the water high into each pine. Every branch moved with the force of the water.
When you give a bath to a little baby who can’t even sit up, you can tell how much it appreciates the touching and caring. It giggles with joy, and then smiles as you hold it in a towel next to you. That was the feeling one of those trees conveyed to me; it appreciated the attention. How beautiful the pine branches were while wearing water droplets sparkling in the sunlight!
In an instant, a number of feelings passed through me. I pondered the creation, and a point before time, when all that existed was the slumbering I Am That I Am in the smallest of all places. What incredible power had to be so focused at that point. When I try to understand, I’m brought to my knees. It’s so amazing…and I seem so insignificant.
But Jesus said, “These things that I do, you can do also, and far greater things.” This has stayed with me and encourages me.
Now the trees I had sprayed were shaking in the breeze. I realized that the way our eyes see the world is one thing, but the way it really exists is another. All the cells of my body were mingling with the atoms in the air, and the air was touching the cells of the trees. My feet on the ground were mingling with the atomic structure and magnetism of the Earth in one huge collage of energy, atoms, cells, vortexes of magnetism and light. Truly, we can just reach out and touch anything, because we’re all connected to everything.
Looking back, it always seemed to me that the path home to Spirit was uphill—sometimes really steep, sometimes more gradual, but always uphill. Recently, however, it came to me that each one of us crosses a threshold of knowing that there’s no turning back on the spiritual path. Once we are truly rooted in our spirituality, the path is not uphill, and we know that when everything is right we’ll collide head on with our Creator and experience the joy of knowing who we truly are.
Each one of us has a personal relationship with Spirit, completely unique, completely dependable, totally real. We should all be encouraged…should allow our hearts to be light and open. We are all children of God, and I Am That I Am is alive in every place…in every point in the universe. Each one of us has been blessed with the desire to be one with that energy and given the tools to attain that goal.
• by Dawn King • Sometimes we find ourselves swept up in the frantic pace of today’s demands. It can throw us off center, make us feel out of sorts or overwhelmed. Each moment we have the opportunity to bring our consciousness back to the calm center of simplicity within. Just take a conscious breath.
Like a deep-sea diver, breath is our life line to existence here in a physical body. Without breath we lose our connection not only to here and now on planet Earth, but to our own spirit as it’s functioning here. Spirit will go on after the body loses breath, but in life we regain our spiritual connection and strength each time we take a conscious meditative breath. Yoga teaches us a lot about breath.
In our daily practice, we can combine frequent conscious breaths with consciously calming and centering ourselves—remembering we are spirit inhabiting this body for only a short time in eternity. This is exactly what we do in meditation, which can lead us to life-changing revelations, feelings of complete love and joy, states of ecstasy.
When I take a conscious breath during a busy day, I recall the peace, or the joy, or some other tremendously comforting experience from a meditation. It could be from an experience I had many years ago. These experiences are precious gems that can develop like illuminating crystals within us if we continue to honor and recall them.
Brother Lawrence wrote: One way of easily recalling the mind is not to let it wander during the day. I keep myself in God’s presence by simple attentiveness and a loving gaze upon God which I call the actual presence of God. Or to put it more clearly, an habitual silent and secret conversation with God. The more we keep our minds on God during the day, the easier it will be to do so during meditation.
Your own spirit wants to lead your life, to give you all the wonderful insights and experiences that would inspire you to find joy in each day. You only need to take a breath with complete desire and openness to experience the unconditional love your spirit truly knows as its own.
• by Eckhart Tolle (excerpted from “The Power of Now”) • Your mind [thinking] is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. Most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy.
This kind of compulsive thinking is actually an addiction—you no longer feel that you have the choice to stop. It seems stronger than you. It also gives you a false sense of pleasure that invariably turns into pain.
Why should we be addicted to thinking? Because you are identified with it. You derive your sense of self from the content and activity of your mind. You believe that you would cease to be if you stopped thinking.
As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego. It consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego used here means a false self created by unconscious identification with the mind.
To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive because without it—who are you?
It constantly projects itself into the future to ensure its continued survival and to seek some kind of release of fulfillment there. It says: “One day when this, that or the other happens, I am going to be okay, happy, at peace.”
Even when the ego seems to be concerned with the present, it is not the present that it sees. It misperceives it completely because it looks at it through the eyes of the past. Or it reduces the present to a means to an end, and end that always lies in the mind-projected future. Observe your mind and you’ll see that this is how it works.
The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.
• by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder • The nature of the universe is love—unconditional, unending. We think we lose loved ones, that’s an illusion. We find them again in the future. This was all wrought not that you suffer, but that you joyfully exist in it; to realize how wonderful, how thrilling it is to be in your body, this great atomic structure produced by light and consciousness.
Yes, who created us? Who sustains us? Who keeps all those electrons in obedient orbit? I Am That I Am does! It is dreaming, through our self-conscious minds, that it is you and me and everyone else. But when it wakes up into Christ consciousness, it knows who it really is.
Think of what life would be if everyone was fully conscious of I Am That I Am within themselves. That is why we pray and meditate—to know and speak with our Creator face to face.
If people’s lives could be changed just by hearing the truth, the whole world would now have salvation. Humanity has been preached to for over 2,000 years, and yet many have not changed their lives. It won’t do any good for any of us to be preachers. We must be demonstrators, overcoming the world as Christed Jesus did, and as he continually asks us all to do.
Yes, everything we accomplish here in our lives is automatically broadcast to everyone on this planet. They’ll receive it in their dreams, and their subconscious mind, in their inspiration and their intuition. Every obstacle anyone overcomes for the sake of Christ consciousness will be felt by everyone on this planet; that’s how it is.
Therefore, the true preaching means living the spiritually conscious life ourselves to the best of our ability today and every day. When you accomplish this, the world will change around you. In short, we have to live a spiritual life completely and totally in action, in all aspects. Let this be our mission.
• by Barbara McCaughey • A documentary about near death experiences intrigued and amazed me. Six people retold their stories of being absent from their physical bodies long enough to recount thoughts and sensations that took place during that time.
One man recalled how small actions during the day can strongly affect the people present and, like the rippling effect of a rock thrown into a pond, they continue to bless or stress future encounters in an ever widening circle. Sa’Di is quoted: “To give joy to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head bowings in prayer.”
This become obvious in my own life when I needed to fill a prescription at my local pharmacy. At first visit, the clerk saw the high price of the medicine and expressed concern that the sale was not covered by insurance. She asked me if I would prefer to take less, or if there was another option open to me. Next the pharmacist assured me that he would check the price since it had doubled after my previous refill. That evening I reflected on how much I appreciated their caring, especially considering their daily volume of work.
At my next visit, the two original employees were not present, and I was told to come back another time for answers to my questions. This was a big inconvenience and when I did come back there was a very long line.
Finally reaching the counter, I was unprepared and take aback at the cashier’s stern pronouncement: “That’s the price. You want it or not?” When I asked for half of the medicine so I could pay for it, a large fee was tacked on, making that cost prohibitive as well. My level of frustration was leading to my feeling anger and disappointment that I’d been unable to improve the situation.
I found a quiet place to sit in silence and regain my composure. Breathing deeply, I felt the natural love of Spirit return to fill the space my ego had just occupied. It amazed me that two seemingly identical missions could have such different outcomes. Then the realization dawned on me that it was my own responsibility to meet trying experiences without resistance, like an aikido master who easily averts a blow which may be meant to wound him. Nothing outside of ourselves can wound our perfect souls. Unless we clash with or absorb adversity emotionally, mentally or physically, we can remain spiritually centered and in balance, unscathed.
Later in the week I came across this anonymous quote which spoke to me: The golden rule is of no use whatsoever unless you realize: It is Your Move! Remaining centered in our true selves, our perception of reality shifts to see the perfection of Spirit’s creation, and we see ourselves as a harmonious part of it. Then Source, the Universe, God speaks for us and the ego is tamed. We can appreciate every opportunity to bless this world with kindness. It’s worth the effort to try and try again.
