The Consistency of Honesty

Living Alone - by Paco Yao

When a major league baseball team was fined 5 million dollars for cheating in the 2017 World Series, some people thought, “So what? Everybody does it.” Well, I'm here to affirm that they are wrong: Everybody does NOT do it. This desire to win, no matter what, is a flawed mission. What's the point in winning a game, or an election, or any type of competition, if you do it by blatantly exploiting the principles of the event or interaction? Humankind seems to have fallen under a spell as wicked as any Disney witch could conjure. Greed for power and/or riches has become more important than integrity and a higher moral code. I have an old friend who apparently was never held accountable for her actions as a child -- nor, perhaps, as an adult. It has made her an odd little person, shriveled by her pettiness and self-righteousness. What we do matters. Let's teach our children (and remind latent grown-ups) that making a difference every day is a life well-lived.

“Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 239:7-10

"Only the trusting can afford honesty, for only they can see its value. Honesty does not apply only to what you say. The term actually means consistency. There is nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do; no thought opposes any other thought; no act belies your word; and no word lacks agreement with another. Such are the truly honest. At no level are they in conflict with themselves. Therefore it is impossible for them to be in conflict with anyone or anything." 

A Course in Miracles - M-4.II.3-9

Compassion For Those in Need

Photo taken in Thailand by Aaron Springston 

A short documentary has been made about a ship, the SS Quanza, and the 83 mostly Belgium Jewish people who were trying to enter the United States in 1940. Many ships had been turned away at that time, with hundreds of their passengers returned to their homeland for extermination. This ship’s youngest passenger, Annette Yachmann, is still living and enjoying a happy life teaching writing at a community college in New York and being a grandmother. She recalls the horror of being trapped on the ship, but is grateful that she was with her mother. She is vocally rebelling against the treatment of children who are separated from their parents as they attempt to enter the United States. The maker of this film, Laura Seltzer-Duny, tells of Eleanor Roosevelt’s extraordinary efforts to bring these people into our country. She also documents the efforts of others who were integral in the humanitarian effort, including a married couple who were lawyers and used maritime law to stalls the ship’s return to Europe. The movie is called “Nobody Wants Us”. It was made with the hope of educating people on the plight of immigrants and the historical fate of those turned away. Education is essential in creating compassion, so let’s support it in all its forms! 

“With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and universal.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 460:30

“It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it. With Help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?” 

A Course in Miracles W-185.14:1-2

Miracles Are Natural

Image: Catrin Welz-Stein

After numerous conversations today about this topic, these words from Thich Nhat Hanh seem to be a perfect post!

“Around us, life bursts forth with miracles—a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere.

Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.

When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there. “
Thich Nhat Hanh

“Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.”
A Course in Miracles T-1.I.6:1-2

“The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 135:6-8

We’re Changing …

Many people are realizing they are living their lives dictated by thought systems instilled in them in early childhood — and it’s not working for them anymore. I have conversations every day with individuals who want to know how to change from the negative, problem-oriented way of living they have thoughtlessly been following. Today a woman asked me how she could experience gratitude in daily life. I advised her to look at her surroundings right here, right now. She was eating lunch at her work desk when she called me, so I suggested she could be grateful for the food she had, the comfortable chair she sat in, the air conditioning in her workplace — everything! She had some “yeah buts” in her conversation, mainly concerning what people said and “did to her”. I reminded her that the past was only alive in her thoughts; it didn’t exist anywhere else. So when something negative or painful began to play in her mind, just stop it! I asked her to say those words to her self: Stop it! And then to think of something she was grateful about — a flower, comfortable shoes — anything at all. It seems we are all breaking free from our cocoons and becoming something beautiful. Don’t be afraid of this change, and please know that you are not alone. Namaste …

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. ‘Let there be light,’ is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by the divine Mind.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 255:1-10

“Today we practice making free your mind of all the laws you think you must obey; of all the limits under which you live, and all the changes that you think are part of human destiny. 

A Course in Miracles W-127.6:4

Peace Fills My Heart

 

What If? 

By Ganga White

“What if our religion was each other?

If our practice was our life?

If prayer was our words?

What if the Temple was the Earth?

If forests were our church?

If holy water - the rivers, lakes and oceans?

What if meditation was our relationships?

If the Teacher was life?

If wisdom was self-knowledge?

If love was the center of our being”

~ Ganga White

“The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which Jesus built. 

His sublime summary points to the religion of Love.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 138:14-16

“Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath; in every action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and every one is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.” 

A Course in Miracles W-267.1:1-7

Too Marvelous To Be Understood

 

Tijana Lukovic, "Wolf Moon"

Mysteries, Yes

by Mary Oliver

“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous

 to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of the lambs.

How rivers and stones are forever

in allegiance with gravity

while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.”

“Listen,—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.” 

A Course in Miracles T-21.1.6:1-3 

The Negative Impact of Ignoring Intuition

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

I often mention intuition in these writings. Today I proved to myself how important it is to listen to that “still, small voice”, that subtle hint, or the idea which seemingly comes from nowhere. Unfortunately, my reminder to listen to divine Mind is the result of a negative experience. When I was pulling out of my driveway to run errands, a thought came as to which route to travel to my first stop. But I decided to go the other way. And I rear-ended a car which was stopped in the road to turn left, with no turn signal or other indication of its intent. The events which followed showed me the beauty of the principle that my safety lies in my defenselessness. The car I hit was driven by a 17-year-old who had bought the car the day before and had no insurance. Blessedly, his mom and grandma and sister were all safe, although the back window of his vehicle shattered from the impact. All my needs were met promptly. My car was towed to my mechanic, my son arrived to take me to pick up the farm-fresh vegetables which would have been my first stop, and friends finished the errands I had been out to accomplish. When the policeman asked me what had happened, I simply said the car in front of me stopped and I plowed into it. I didn’t try to defend myself by blaming the young driver, I didn’t make excuses for myself, I simply sat in gratitude for the protection we all witnessed. The few people who know about this incident are amazed that I don’t know the future of my 30-year-old Jeep, I don’t know the contents of the police report, I’m not going to the doctor to be “checked out”, and I have no concerns about any outcome. This trust in Good can be directly attributed to the years I’ve studied the laws of Love, and the trust I have in them. My heart is full of gratitude…

“It is the illumination of the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 85:2-6

“Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you. Perhaps you will recall the text maintains that choice is always made between Christ’s strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him. Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants.”
A Course in Miracles W-153.6:1-4