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Horizons Magazine
JULY 2001
Group interaction, becoming more spiritual, deciding what we want
Hello and welcome to the July 2001 issue of Horizons Magazine. Last month
marked our 9th anniversary, and I thank everyone who's helped us come this
far - we literally could not have done it without your continued support. Much
of the feedback I get each month is in the form of email - which we didn't even
have when we began the magazine. I can hardly remember a time before email, it's become so much a part of my daily life, for work and for play. Friends who know me know I keep a busy schedule and that my in-person and telephone time is often hard to come by. Friends who have email hear from me lots more often than friends who don't.
Because of the magazine, over the last decade readers have come to see me as a kind of 'clearing house' for all sorts of information, and I'm always receiving notes and calls telling me who someone thinks is a good teacher or counselor, and who someone thinks is a rip off artist. During times like these, it's not always easy to remember that we attract everything we get - that on some level, whatever is happening to us, is because we are attracting it. If you feel you're being taken advantage of over and over again, it may be time to stop, take a look, and set out to consciously pre-pave a different future. And it helps to be a little flexible in what you want to happen, and how you expect it to look when it gets here.
One email I've received a few dozen times in the past few years has a whole list of what God WON'T do and won't look like, such as: "When God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT send, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle." It's humourous that many people have such a pre-conceived notion of what God is that they think they can predict what God isn't. Wouldn't they be real ticked off if Benny Hinn turned out to be Jesus in disguise? *hehe*
Maybe I'm no better. I personally think that when God decides to deliver a message to humanity, He won't send someone you can only find in one particular church, nor will He send someone you can only get in to see if you pay an admission fee. I don't think He'd send someone who'd charge you a fee to certify you in any type of 'healing" modality, so that you can then certify others for a fee. I doubt He'd sell you a franchise under the guise of it being a "spiritual modality." Nor will He send a messenger absorbed in exxagerated claims and self promotion.
I believe He has sent, and continues to send, messengers who quietly, unobtrusively and without fanfare do miraculous work in the course of their everyday lives. This is just my opinion. I know of several prayer groups who often don't even meet in person but rather set aside time and faithfully pray together at an appointed hour every day and have the knowing and evidence that prayers make a difference. These are focused groups who come together for this purpose only and do not combine their work with socializing and networking at the same time. They know the power of intent and focused attention.
I know of several profound healers whose presence and touch alone facilitates the body's return to wellness. None of them have you lie on a table while incense and candles burn, nor move around you making elaborate hand motions. They know that just sitting together having a quiet cup of tea can be all that is needed. What they are imparting to you has to do with consciousness rather than physical manuevers. Just being in the presence of someone who has a realization of the eternal nature of YOU, the unity of all that exists, and the fact of the Creator as supply - just being in the presence of that one somehow begins transmission within you.
This is not to say that you shouldn't do sessions with professionals for the purpose of relaxation and self discovery. I burn candles and incense all the time. Friends find massage and aromatherapy relaxing, and find techniques like rebirthing helpful in moving through personal issues. What I'm talking about is the claims of lots of marketers that their product, technique or service is somehow required if you want to 'connect with your Higher Self' or become 'enlightened.' It's my belief that lots of these techniques are helpful for lots of people, and that none of them have to do with increasing spirituality.
I believe becoming more spiritual has to do with the state of your consciousness, and how you perceive your relationship to the Sacred, to others and to the world around you. In cultivating spirituality, Ram Dass says: You create the garden, you don't grow the flower. You can merely fertilize the earth and keep it soft and moist, and then the flower grows as best it can."
Having faith in the Sacred, particularly in the presence of hardship, provides me with comfort and optimism. This consciousness allows me to view obstacles and challenges productively, and reveals their temporary nature to me. Once I had an inner experience of connection to Source - which I call the metaphysical or mystical experience and what some call the peak experience - the effect of the experience was evidenced in my behavior. I set out to harmonize and reconcile all areas of my life with what I 'knew' in the moment of that transcendental experience - that we are all One, that we are all absolutely, intrinsically and intricately connected and that what you do to one ultimately affects all. To me, spirituality has to do with wanting to make all aspects of my life more spiritually meaningful; that is, to come closer to God via whoever or whatever is before me in every moment.
Once I feel connected with God, my thoughts, words and actions come forth from that state of consciousness, which some call the Christ consciousness. From this state of mind - which includes faith that the Unseen will guide and protect me - I make good decisions and appropriate life choices. This is not to say I'm in this consciousness all the time but, to the extent that I do my best to live in integrity and make prayer and meditation part of my daily routine, to that extent do I experience connection, peace, clarity and guidance. First, as Doug Day says in this issue, you must WANT to make a change.
One way to become more mindful and conscious is to talk less and listen more. Know that not everything everyone says requires a comment. If we can lose the need to fill every moment with words, we come to know so much more about everything around us. In going through my mom's papers after she died, I came across a painting I did for her when I was about 12 and it showed a smiley sunshine peeking around a fish bowl full of fish and a lizard on top and the writing said, "Everything will talk to you if you love it enough." Wow, I said that? At 12? How did I know and why didn't I remember that until years later? But it is my absolute experience that is true.
Laura Hyde in this issue reminds us that God will talk directly to you via inspiring thoughts and feelings, experiences of unconditional love, and support from others. Nick Arandes suggests that your desires are like suggestions from the Holy Spirit, expressing His/Her desires through you. Wait, does that mean that God wants for us what we want for ourselves? That's pretty scary. That means we hafta get off our duff and decide what it is we want? *yikes*