Why Is It So Difficult?

 

photo credit: Heather Peters

There are literally hundreds of translations of the Bible upon which most Christians base their faith. Individual understanding of these words seem to be facilitated by preachers and other religious teachers. Most people never read the Bible, but rely on what they are told by these learned folks. One sect thinks blood transfusions are against the laws of God. That idea is based on the same chapter of the Old Testament wherein others find scripture which forbid them from eating shellfish and associating with homosexuals. The god represented in the early chapters of this Bible is a rather harsh entity. The crass laws Moses brought down from the mountain are full of warnings and threats. Jesus brought us simpler rules, much easier to understand and apply. Love everybody; love God. It seems pretty simple, but we humans like to complicate things. I've spent half a century trying to understand why we make life so difficult. I like the way A Course in Miracles explains all this mess. It's just ego. Not Ego, as in the way Mary Baker Eddy describes it, but ego, as in yours and mine fighting to be right about everything. But I keep coming back to the same question: Why is it so difficult to love everybody? 

"Our goal is but to follow in the way that leads to You. We have no goal but this. What could we want but to remember You? What could we seek but our Identity?" A Course in Miracles

"Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 11:28-32

Mrs. Smith Thinks She's Dead

 

Years ago, when our nearly 100-year-old Christian Science church was on the Christmas Tour of Homes, a man came in and told me he knew lots of Baptist jokes, because that's what he was, but he only knew one Christian Science joke, and asked if I wanted to hear it. Of course I did! A little girl comes home from school and tells her mother that her teacher, Mrs. Smith, is sick. The girl's mom says, No, dear, she only thinks she's sick. A few days later the girl comes home and tells her mother that Mrs. Smith is still sick. The mother once again explains that Mrs. Smith only thinks she's sick. A few days later the little girl comes home and tells her mom that Mrs. Smith thinks she's dead. While I chuckled with him over this joke, I also told him that the reason it was really funny was because it was true! And then we had a big laugh!

"The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies that it delineates thought on matter, but what is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments. The potter is not in the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all."Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 310:1-10

Tasting Mindfulness

 

Crescent Hotel - Eureka Springs, AR

photo credit: Harrison Sutcliffe

Embracing Formal Practice: Tasting Mindfulness

- by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Have you ever had the experience of stopping so completely?

of being in your body so completely,

of being in your life so completely

that you knew and what you didn’t know

that what had been and what was yet to come,

and the way things are right now

no longer held even the slightest hint of anxiety or discord?

It would be a moment of complete presence, beyond striving,

beyond mere acceptance,

beyond the desire to escape or fix anything or plunge ahead,

a moment of pure seeing, pure feeling,

a moment in which life simply is,

and that ‘isness’ grabs you by all your senses,

all your memories, by all your very genes,

by your loves, and

welcomes you home”

By: Jon Kabat-Zinn

Intuition/Planning

 

Tomorrow there is a wedding scheduled at the church where I play organ. We had rehearsal today and hardly anything went the way it was planned. As I watched mini-dramas unfold from my organ bench in the balcony, I was reminded of a recurring conversation my son and I had a few weeks ago. I'm not a big fan of planning; he thinks it's necessary. I'm sure we're both correct, as was shown by the events today. The priest was late because he didn't know there was to be a rehearsal. There was a glitch in the planning and so he had not heard. Many things were set up according to "usual" wedding protocol, but it turned out the priest and/or the wedding party didn't want it that way. So there had been some wasted effort in planning as things were changed at the last minute. The biggest faux pas was that the bride and groom didn't know they needed to get a wedding license! I'm not sure what category that falls into, but it added to the possible stress of the situation. Father Joseph speaks a number of languages in his native Nigerian accent, and he is delightful. When he entered the church 30 minutes late, he immediately began to work the room, putting everyone at ease, joking, and giving orders. Listening to his Spanglish (the wedding party are Hispanic, but most speak at least some English), was a fun and interesting activity. From my viewpoint up above, I hardly ever had any idea of what was going on, but I shall trust my intuition to carry us through the Spanish service tomorrow. It will be a lovely wedding...

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 298:13-15

True Happiness

 

Maxfield Parrish - Early Morning, First Snow, 1959.

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” Seneca

Happy Thanksgiving

 "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 3:22-27

Imagine

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photo credit: Richard Quick 

Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a world where losing is impossible, where love lasts forever, where hate does not exist, and vengeance has no meaning? It would be grand if we never had misunderstandings because communication was clear and precise, without the burden of forming words to tell others what we mean. There would be no hard feelings between people as we wouldn't blame others for thinking differently than we do, because we know that at our core all of us are One. The world we have created is wonderful in many ways, but there are also horrors beyond words, and this is what causes people to lose faith in this thing we call God. We have created an un-God-like world and blame an unknown deity for what we think we cannot change. What if we're wrong and what we see is not true creation? Imagine that!!

“That which material sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-dream vanishes and reality appears." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 312:3-6