10 years ago
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The purpose
The purpose of a life lived in Torah is not the elevation of the soul: It is the sanctification of the world. Thus, every day we experience two sides of the same light. On one side, the light is like the land, requiring work to be made useful and to produce clothing, food, shelter. The other side of that same light is one in which we learn and pray. The first is the city, the second a wilderness. The first is communal, the second isolated. They appear to be in tension, but they are of and from the same light. They are the two parts of every one of our days. We can each begin our day in wilderness, with morning seclusion, prayer, meditation, and learning. But sooner or later we emerge from the wildernesss and move into the world of matters, of business, livelihood and labor.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What is really important?
There is so much work to be done. And so many thoughts race through my mind when I begin to think about what is important and what I think I need to do. The work that sits before me is in layers and at the surface feels like a hammer shattering my peace into pieces.
At the surface are my day to day responsibilities and activities. Some of them have value in expressing a greater good and others are simply habit. Get up, start working, optimize web pages, analyze traffic logs, return emails, make a to do list for the day, clear out spam, review case inquiries, play voicemails, meetings, ideas, follow up with work that others are doing, and so on. The mundane, day to day work to make a living and support a family. Many of us have our own version of this routine. How much of our time do we dedicate to such tasks. And how do we integrate these activities with a greater calling.
How, if all of the above is approached with the right mindset, can it be made holy. All of that "mundane" - that too is an expression of the Endless and Infinite One. So I can not simply say - why bother with it. Is it not the battle field upon which I stand? Because to simply go about it without recognizing that the work too is an expression of God would be to ignore one part of the miriad display of The Infinite. No, that daily work is as holy as silent prayer, if I will allow it to be so.
But, judging as I do, I ask whether that is time well spent or time wasted away from a "truer" calling and exploration into a higher self, the infinite self. A taste for a higher calling exists. The call comes from within. And then, I judge that those daily activites have less value, as I consider others that perhaps I think could offer more value. What about exercise and good diet for the body, what about study of Holy texts, what about the study of Hebrew and the opportunity that provides to directly study Torah. What about the practice of Yoga and meditation and a gateway to experiences that are beyond the mundane and that can help make the mundane Holy as well. What about prayer?
So a frustration emerges. One in which for that moment I feel the world being contracted and imperfect and unfixable. Emotions run from way to way and the mind keeps searching for an answer. And then there is another layer and another layer.
What about the idea that the world is infinite. That its fundamental nature is infinite. What about the reality of that? That it is all One, and all is an expression of The Infinite One. That I am of, from, and within The Infinite One. If there is an infinity, and since I believe that the basic nature of all that is knowable, and known and unknown and unknowable is infinite, and I believe that matter, time and space are creations of The Infinite One, then I can consider infinity to be more than an idea -- rather, I experience it as it is, as infinite with possibility, potential, body, mind, life, spirit and soul. I move beyond my narrow experience and into the Infinite experience. And within, of, and from that Infinitiy comes a hope, an expansion, and perfection.
At the surface are my day to day responsibilities and activities. Some of them have value in expressing a greater good and others are simply habit. Get up, start working, optimize web pages, analyze traffic logs, return emails, make a to do list for the day, clear out spam, review case inquiries, play voicemails, meetings, ideas, follow up with work that others are doing, and so on. The mundane, day to day work to make a living and support a family. Many of us have our own version of this routine. How much of our time do we dedicate to such tasks. And how do we integrate these activities with a greater calling.
How, if all of the above is approached with the right mindset, can it be made holy. All of that "mundane" - that too is an expression of the Endless and Infinite One. So I can not simply say - why bother with it. Is it not the battle field upon which I stand? Because to simply go about it without recognizing that the work too is an expression of God would be to ignore one part of the miriad display of The Infinite. No, that daily work is as holy as silent prayer, if I will allow it to be so.
But, judging as I do, I ask whether that is time well spent or time wasted away from a "truer" calling and exploration into a higher self, the infinite self. A taste for a higher calling exists. The call comes from within. And then, I judge that those daily activites have less value, as I consider others that perhaps I think could offer more value. What about exercise and good diet for the body, what about study of Holy texts, what about the study of Hebrew and the opportunity that provides to directly study Torah. What about the practice of Yoga and meditation and a gateway to experiences that are beyond the mundane and that can help make the mundane Holy as well. What about prayer?
So a frustration emerges. One in which for that moment I feel the world being contracted and imperfect and unfixable. Emotions run from way to way and the mind keeps searching for an answer. And then there is another layer and another layer.
What about the idea that the world is infinite. That its fundamental nature is infinite. What about the reality of that? That it is all One, and all is an expression of The Infinite One. That I am of, from, and within The Infinite One. If there is an infinity, and since I believe that the basic nature of all that is knowable, and known and unknown and unknowable is infinite, and I believe that matter, time and space are creations of The Infinite One, then I can consider infinity to be more than an idea -- rather, I experience it as it is, as infinite with possibility, potential, body, mind, life, spirit and soul. I move beyond my narrow experience and into the Infinite experience. And within, of, and from that Infinitiy comes a hope, an expansion, and perfection.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Divine Inspiration or Earthly Knowledge
I can simply be inspired to sense God or I can study to know God. Both are good.
"We" is One
"We" is One, manifest as many, the many of One seeking to express and experience its infinite self.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Remembering
I am sure I first came to Yoga seeking to get out of my head... and to stop thinking about the worries in my life. That is, at first I went there to forget... I am learning to step onto the mat to remember my true self -- the brightness that shines from within and is always there waiting to be remembered. Instead of forgetting or blocking out anxiety, I know that am here to remember and welcome what is light and good. I walk into a Yoga class with things to do and not enough time. And I walk out of that same class transformed, awakened, unveiled -- knowing that whatever need be, will be.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sensing Destiny
Do you ever sense destiny? I do. For me it is a feeling that everything that has happened to me before this moment has lead me specifically to this moment. It becomes so obvious to me in that moment how the pieces of my life fit together into a unified whole. It provides me with a knowledge that everything up until that point has been part of a much needed preparation for the task at hand.
Do you believe in synchronicity? I do. Is there coincidence? Of course. But that is just one way of looking at things. Millions and billions of events happen in our lives and any statistician of merit can tell you that lots of things are bound to appear connected when in fact these events are just the random play of large numbers. That is right, go pick your favorite lottery number and play it billions of times, it is bound to come up, and on that day you can say it was coincidence. Or take a thousand trips and on one of them you are bound to bump into a long lost friend, a next door neighbor, a cousin, or classmate. Well, maybe you just bumped into your destiny. That is, what do you do with the information. Yes, billions of events are happening to us all of the time. Which day? Where were you that day? What do you make of it? What do we do with the new thought that jumps into our head? Where do we decide to go next? When we are in synch with the Universe (One Verse), history (His Story) happens. When we are ready to hear our call, we are ready to answer that call. Infinities of events happen and there are thus infinite calls to action.
Do you believe the future is predestined? I don't. I don't see destiny and predestination as one. I have a choice I need to make in each moment. Do I write this next word? Do I follow that next thought? Do I accept Grace into my life? I am destined to do so, but it is not predestined when it will happen. It can happen at any time. It can happen at every time. And when I am ready to sense my destiny, it will happen.
I have experienced a lot of new sensations and feelings in this past week. As I listened to Michelle speak this week, I heard how life can be like a pendulum that has a natural swing but will settle in on a channel. That it is destined to do so, and that once it does, we become tuned into that channel -- drawn in by it, like a tractor beam. She spoke of how when we tune into that channel we begin to act in harmony with the Greater Power that guides us. That is, our growth continues, but the growth becomes harmonious. She also spoke about how the world we exist within has finally reached a time of integrity. And that each of us who are on a spiritual pilgrimage are helping by creating this integrity to balance out the ill-effects of people who do not live in harmony with the Universe.
Do I believe in synchronicity? Yes, of course. What did I pick up and read yesterday? I don't know why, but I reached for a pile of papers that contained something I printed on 8/1/2007 from the peacepilgrim.com website. She had said, "A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must not falter, we must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace in whatever way we can." She was not just talking of world peace. In fact, the first step towards world peace is inner peace.
Do I believe in destiny? Yes. I saw it this week as I was asked to participate by Rabbi Sigal in a Yoga Nidra exercise and I was reminded of Sigal's words to me that there is not a duality in life while we do perceive a duality. We perceive a separateness from each other and from God, but we are all God manifest. We are all a manifestation of a power greater than ourselves that is within us and everywhere else. So there are these two sides of the same face. Seeing them as two is natural, as we are the Infinite having taken physical form. But when we are ready we will realize that these aspects of us are not two, they are One. There is enough time to do what we need to do in the physical world. It is not unimportant. And there is enough time to connect with the spiritual path, and that too is not unimportant. And in the end the two paths will merge and there will no longer be a veil that causes us to see them as separate.
So my pendulum swings from the grand, and infinite and connected, and the intellect, and study, and prayer, meditation, yoga practice and hope. And then painfully it swings back to the mundane, the physical, the attached, the fear, dullness, boredom, apathy, lethargy, gluttony, ineptness, and inadequacy. So I thought that was my destiny to swing back and forth. That was until this week, when I found new hope in Michelle's words. She probably had said the following a dozen times before in the last few years while I practiced at her Yoga studio, Prasad. And if not Michelle's words, then surely I had heard it a 100 times before that. The words were that yes we are on a pendulum, but no, it won't stay that way. That there is a channel through which we pass and in each passing we tune in. And each time we tune in, we tune in for longer and longer periods. And as more and more of us tune in, the signal becomes stronger and the world comes into integrity, and that great and wonderful things will be happening in the near future as a result of our efforts to tune into this channel. Better yet, as we tune in, once we tune in, we will be drawn in.
And here is one more thought, this one divinely inspired through me. That I can study and study and that is good. But that is not an end. It just prepares me. It prepares me to act when I am needed. And I can think and think, but I will never think my way to the answers. The answers will just be given to me when I am ready to hear them call out to me. When you see a great athlete or dancer or painter or inventor or anyone who has added to the perfection, joy and beauty of the world do whatever it is that they do at their highest level -- you see that is it without thought or intellect. It is simply divinely inspired. It just emerges naturally. They merge with the Infinite and express that Greater Power. So rather than expecting to find the answers, I can just prepare myself to be ready for the answers to find me.
Do you believe in synchronicity? I do. Is there coincidence? Of course. But that is just one way of looking at things. Millions and billions of events happen in our lives and any statistician of merit can tell you that lots of things are bound to appear connected when in fact these events are just the random play of large numbers. That is right, go pick your favorite lottery number and play it billions of times, it is bound to come up, and on that day you can say it was coincidence. Or take a thousand trips and on one of them you are bound to bump into a long lost friend, a next door neighbor, a cousin, or classmate. Well, maybe you just bumped into your destiny. That is, what do you do with the information. Yes, billions of events are happening to us all of the time. Which day? Where were you that day? What do you make of it? What do we do with the new thought that jumps into our head? Where do we decide to go next? When we are in synch with the Universe (One Verse), history (His Story) happens. When we are ready to hear our call, we are ready to answer that call. Infinities of events happen and there are thus infinite calls to action.
Do you believe the future is predestined? I don't. I don't see destiny and predestination as one. I have a choice I need to make in each moment. Do I write this next word? Do I follow that next thought? Do I accept Grace into my life? I am destined to do so, but it is not predestined when it will happen. It can happen at any time. It can happen at every time. And when I am ready to sense my destiny, it will happen.
I have experienced a lot of new sensations and feelings in this past week. As I listened to Michelle speak this week, I heard how life can be like a pendulum that has a natural swing but will settle in on a channel. That it is destined to do so, and that once it does, we become tuned into that channel -- drawn in by it, like a tractor beam. She spoke of how when we tune into that channel we begin to act in harmony with the Greater Power that guides us. That is, our growth continues, but the growth becomes harmonious. She also spoke about how the world we exist within has finally reached a time of integrity. And that each of us who are on a spiritual pilgrimage are helping by creating this integrity to balance out the ill-effects of people who do not live in harmony with the Universe.
Do I believe in synchronicity? Yes, of course. What did I pick up and read yesterday? I don't know why, but I reached for a pile of papers that contained something I printed on 8/1/2007 from the peacepilgrim.com website. She had said, "A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must not falter, we must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace in whatever way we can." She was not just talking of world peace. In fact, the first step towards world peace is inner peace.
Do I believe in destiny? Yes. I saw it this week as I was asked to participate by Rabbi Sigal in a Yoga Nidra exercise and I was reminded of Sigal's words to me that there is not a duality in life while we do perceive a duality. We perceive a separateness from each other and from God, but we are all God manifest. We are all a manifestation of a power greater than ourselves that is within us and everywhere else. So there are these two sides of the same face. Seeing them as two is natural, as we are the Infinite having taken physical form. But when we are ready we will realize that these aspects of us are not two, they are One. There is enough time to do what we need to do in the physical world. It is not unimportant. And there is enough time to connect with the spiritual path, and that too is not unimportant. And in the end the two paths will merge and there will no longer be a veil that causes us to see them as separate.
So my pendulum swings from the grand, and infinite and connected, and the intellect, and study, and prayer, meditation, yoga practice and hope. And then painfully it swings back to the mundane, the physical, the attached, the fear, dullness, boredom, apathy, lethargy, gluttony, ineptness, and inadequacy. So I thought that was my destiny to swing back and forth. That was until this week, when I found new hope in Michelle's words. She probably had said the following a dozen times before in the last few years while I practiced at her Yoga studio, Prasad. And if not Michelle's words, then surely I had heard it a 100 times before that. The words were that yes we are on a pendulum, but no, it won't stay that way. That there is a channel through which we pass and in each passing we tune in. And each time we tune in, we tune in for longer and longer periods. And as more and more of us tune in, the signal becomes stronger and the world comes into integrity, and that great and wonderful things will be happening in the near future as a result of our efforts to tune into this channel. Better yet, as we tune in, once we tune in, we will be drawn in.
And here is one more thought, this one divinely inspired through me. That I can study and study and that is good. But that is not an end. It just prepares me. It prepares me to act when I am needed. And I can think and think, but I will never think my way to the answers. The answers will just be given to me when I am ready to hear them call out to me. When you see a great athlete or dancer or painter or inventor or anyone who has added to the perfection, joy and beauty of the world do whatever it is that they do at their highest level -- you see that is it without thought or intellect. It is simply divinely inspired. It just emerges naturally. They merge with the Infinite and express that Greater Power. So rather than expecting to find the answers, I can just prepare myself to be ready for the answers to find me.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
And for this too I am thankful
This was a tough week for us with Molly on Monday seriously, painfully, and thankfully not liklely permanently, injuring both feet... and for now being unable to walk... and thus being home bound.. and offering herself to our constant care 24x7... for at least two weeks and probably closer to four. A test, an opportunity, a present? Well I guess so. Certainly a chance to remain present and to expand my capacity to offer and receive unconditional love. And so for this too I am to find how to be thankful.
Only by finding a weak link can a chain be strengthened. So too with me. If I am never asked to lift somethng heavier than I thought I could lift, how will I learn which muscles need work? Only by revealing yet another place with room for infinite growth can expansion of my capacity to love take place. Only by being asked to find light in a situation that seems so dark, will I learn which parts of my heart and mind need to open up to new possibilities... a renewed sense of God's unconditional light and love.
As in the words of Morris West (from The Clowns of God)...
I know what are you thinking.
You need a sign.
What better one could I give
than to make this little one whole and new?
I could do it; but I will not.
I am the Lord and not a conjurer.
I gave this mite a gift I denied to all of you
ETERNAL INNOCENCE
To you she looks imperfect
but to me she is flawless,
like the bud that dies unopened,
or the fledglings
that fall from the nest to be devoured by ants.
She never offended me,
as all of you have done.
She never perverted the work of My Father hands.
She is necessary to you.
She will evoke the kindness that will prompt you to
gratitude for (your) own good fortune....more.....
she will remind you every day that I am who I am,
that My ways are not yours,
and the smallest dust mite whirled in darkest
space does not fall out of my hand.
I have chosen you.
you have not chosen me.
this little one is my sign to you.
TREASURE HER.
Only by finding a weak link can a chain be strengthened. So too with me. If I am never asked to lift somethng heavier than I thought I could lift, how will I learn which muscles need work? Only by revealing yet another place with room for infinite growth can expansion of my capacity to love take place. Only by being asked to find light in a situation that seems so dark, will I learn which parts of my heart and mind need to open up to new possibilities... a renewed sense of God's unconditional light and love.
As in the words of Morris West (from The Clowns of God)...
I know what are you thinking.
You need a sign.
What better one could I give
than to make this little one whole and new?
I could do it; but I will not.
I am the Lord and not a conjurer.
I gave this mite a gift I denied to all of you
ETERNAL INNOCENCE
To you she looks imperfect
but to me she is flawless,
like the bud that dies unopened,
or the fledglings
that fall from the nest to be devoured by ants.
She never offended me,
as all of you have done.
She never perverted the work of My Father hands.
She is necessary to you.
She will evoke the kindness that will prompt you to
gratitude for (your) own good fortune....more.....
she will remind you every day that I am who I am,
that My ways are not yours,
and the smallest dust mite whirled in darkest
space does not fall out of my hand.
I have chosen you.
you have not chosen me.
this little one is my sign to you.
TREASURE HER.
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