If I could give up the need to be right, what might change?The thinking mind’s idea of “right/wrong”

As Shakespeare said, “Nothing is either right or wrong, but thinking makes it so.”

I return to add something to this “Question of the Day”. There is another dimension to it. This dimension is very prevalent in current North American News.

Behind the right/wrong dilemma stands the mind condition of “Opinion”. As the late Dr D. R. Hawkins loved to remind us, “All opinion is Vanity.

So taking the old saw / saying, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion”…..and converting it into Hawkins pointer….then….
“Everyone is entitled to their Vanity”…

pretty much sums up current N. A. news media, social media etc etc

What are the most basic things, which I rarely think about, for which I am truly grateful?

The Gratitude moderator has dropped a Gift of a question here on this Nov 28, #GivingTuesday”.

I appreciate this question become it has a bit in “catch” to it. The more “Basic things” that I am “Truly Grateful” for ….is Life and the Source Life. It is not that I “rarely Think about” this source of Life…..( and this is the “catch” ) I rarely have enough Conscious Presence to ……as Mohamed ( All Blessings a Peace be with him) said it best, “We do not know you as you should be known”.

The “you” he is referring to has been identified by names such as …Source, Holy Spirit, Logos, Archangels, Eternal Now, …and in the current popular spiritual name such as, stillness, peace, formless, bliss…..etc

I do sincerely try to think of this “you” or “source” often, but, compared to what the great Masters have conveyed I rarely have enough ability to know them as they should be known, but I can indeed still be very Grateful,, even for the ( and here is the “Catch” ) Not knowing!

Dear Ferial

Thank you for this very encompassing overview of life as it is when applied in grateful awareness.

There are many sub-topics here, so I have to take one in specific and focus on it. This particular one in particular the ” High Low Hero” meditation, is dear to me.

As an Essene Christian ( therefore esoteric not exoteric) I make 7 Promises to myself ever day and try to live “IN” they as sincerely as possible but, at the same time, never turning it into an opportunity for self criticism. ( The egoism does love to try and do its self preservation tricks)

The 7th promise is

“To investigate and check every night whether all my thoughts, desire, words and actions are in absolute harmony with the Divine Plan.”

This aspect of Essene nightly meditation requires much training in visualization and recall …and as you do too…and important to all practicing ‘meditators’…it must be done in the evening when the egoism ( story wise, the bad side of the ‘Internal Wolf’ ) is at its weakest defensively. I suspect you are very aware of this so I just want to highlight it, you have dropped a real “gem” of a practice here.

And please if I maybe allowed to over respond a bit here.

On the aspect of “Transgender” in Human Being-ness. It is vitally important for all Humans to live in the Awareness that …….

“Spirit is neither male nor female……It is BOTH”.

There is too much focusing on the surface of manifestation of existence and not enough on the Source of/behind/ the manifestation. Some like to call this Source “unknowable” but as a practicing Essene Christian I know it is “knowable” in all thoughts, words, desires, words and actions. I trust this truth that resonates with you and your students.

Be Well Be Present

EdS

What does generosity mean to me?

This is a well placed question, Dear Moderator, you are reflecting on the ‘Word of the day’ by Merton here.

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”
THOMAS MERTON

But Merton’s overview of “compassion” has many layers to it and there is the danger that, if it were taken on surface level, it could promote “servile to nature-ism” and that would weaken what it is to be Truly Human.

I will chose a deeper layer …one that identifies the fact that “as you give, so such you receive.” So long as that level is understood and APPLIED from the Heart and Soul ( and not the intellectual ) then one lives in the wonderful knowing that ….”one can’t give away a glass of water without receiving it back again.”

Yes “keenly aware interdependence” but also there is deep, deep “keenly aware connectedness” on many, many, levels within Being-ness.

For what is my heart yearning?

The “HOME” I focused on in yesterday’s “daily question”

I answer that yearning/desire of my Etheric Heart centre by making and maintaining its clarity in prayer. Part of which says, “Enlighten our minds to know you as the Truth, clear our Hearts to reflect Your Love to You,”

So what the Etheric Heart “yearns” for, more then anything else, is to be kept clear of all negativity so that it can BE what it was originally intended to do …”Reflect its Source-Creator back to its Source-Creator.

Dear Brother David

I trust this finds you warm in the Arms of Joshua Emanuel the Christ and Very well in energetic physical heath also.

I share with you an admiration for Oriental rugs but also a Germanic sense of humour. So please allow my “smart guy” comment here to “knot” be seen as sarcastic.

I smiled at the missing “k” in your sentence “I envisage brown fingers tying knot after not – thousands a day;”

I “appa”-preciate the visual effect of this “missing “k”” because now, everything I step of an Oriental Rug, I will see / feel / hear Rumi’s poem “Only Breath”, 6 thousand nots per square inch, better! 🙂

ONLY BREATH

Not Christian not Jew
not Muslim
not Hindu,
not Buddhist
not sufi
not zen.
not any religion
not cultural system.
I am not from the East or the West,
not out of the ocean or up from the ground,
not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.

I do not exist,

I am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story.

My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.”

RUMI

What are some of the places I have called home, and truly felt at home?

Echoing the ‘Word of the Day’

“Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, “I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.”

Wise Socrates knew that the only True ONE “Home” is the Original Source of ones existence. That ‘place’ we have never left1 And yet, for some strange reason, the egoic mind thinks it is separate from Home and therefore it must have a material place to call “home”!

But Truly, “Home” is in the “BEness” of “Beingness”

What really matters to me? Love is God.

There is ONLY one “what” in existence that ultimately matters and it is both the Source and the Home we Humans return to.

I quote here Dr Stylianos Atteshlis [Daskalos] because his words carry a power far behind the mere sounds of the words.

“So what is life, what is love? It is the soundless vibrations coming-out of each individual Human Being’s Etheric heart. If our material heart was love then than love has no value.

It is the highest meaning expressed by ACTION and not (only) by words.

Love is the main manifestation of God as Life.”

continuing the poem to its end

“Words, Ideas,
even the phrase
“Each other”

Doesn’t make ANY sense.”

Yes and Good call on attributing Barks as the “interpreter” although I am sure Rumi would appreciated this rendition of it too.

As a Canadian I will stay out of commenting on specific geographic politics, we have bad examples of our own. And your choice of counterbalancing is much the same as mine. “Do-Be-Do-Be-Do”.

Be Well and Be In the Presence always

EdS

And I the Hawkins. So applicable for the current state of western mind.

Quoting from Power vs Force

” The gun and the nightstick are evidence of weakness; the need to control others stems from lack of power, just as vanity stems from lack of self-esteem. ”

“The mind identifies with its content takes credit and blame for what it receives for it would be humbling to the mind’s ego to admit that the only thing it is doing is experiencing, and, in fact only experiencing experiencing. The mind does not even experience the world but only sensory reports of it. Ever brilliant thoughts and deepest feelings are only experience; ultimately, we have but one function: to experience
experience. “

Malag

May I respectfully disagree with your “not natural for me” comment? You are spot on when you said “likely to come from an abundant mindset”.

I had just quoted Matt 13:11 and 12 in a response to Melania which relates to Matt confirming that “finding the kingdom” is only “having” necessary ..and all else comes in the form of abundance, naturally. So you intuition ( which is Mind of course, or perhaps a whispering from your Guardian Archangel too? ) was saying it is there now within you and it is very “natural” too to self check for ways to be open for more. After all the Infinite “kingdom” is aways Infinitely more then any human can mentally grasp …and yet is ours to grasp anyway !

Antoinette, your sentiments of “Home” sparked recall of Brother David’s words on that “Place” in our Being-ness ……

Quoting from “”Deeper then Words” The Apostle’s Creed”

“Salvation” is homecoming. When love, not power, reign supreme, alienation from ourselves, from all others, and from God is healed. The moment we realize we can never fall out of God’s love, we “come to ourselves” ( like the wayward son in the parable ) to our true Self, at home in the God household as a uniquely loved member of the family. And now we become the catalysts for the salvation of the whole world, its transformation from power and domination to service and love. Salvation–and this needs to be stressed–is not a private matter.’ End Quote and AMEN! to that Place Brother David!