Watch Out For Those Lower Propensities!

Graphic of Unknown Origin

Being too tired to write this evening, I give you one from the past which jumped out at me!

I’ve noticed myself (and others) mindlessly repeating things we have heard, whether it be truth or rumor, good news or a horrid happening, or simply inanities. In the volatile atmosphere of our emotionally-charged country, it is particularly important to scatter joy and express kindness. Kindness goes hand-in-hand with compassion, but that doesn’t mean we must exacerbate others' pain by adding our own to it. I’ve heard it said that worry is much like praying for something bad to happen. With this in mind, I will try to only see, hear, and repeat good. This does not mean I will ignore injustice in all its many faces, nor does it mean that I'll turn my back on someone in need. It does mean when I hear of yet another travesty against mankind and the environment, I will see it through different eyes, translating it into what can occur to move us into our true selves as images of the divine. Planning to refrain from rehashing horror stories, or engaging in inane conversations, or telling my own stories which top the bad things others have experienced, these are things I can and will do at every opportunity. Every thought matters, and ours may be the one which turns it all around!

“Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today, and hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the truth to you. You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God’s laws forever give and never take.”
A Course in Miracles W-76.9:2-6

“The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, Page 206:2-7

Compass of the Heart

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

As I read stories of Lakota wisdom, I am reminded of a book I read years ago, called “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats”, by Jon-Phillip Sendker. The main character loses his eyesight when he’s a young boy. One of his mentors tells him that the true essence of things is invisible to the eyes. He says the eyes distract us, as they love to be dazzled, and that we rely too heavily on them and neglect our other senses. The other senses to which he refers are more than hearing or taste or smell. “I’m talking about the organ within us, for which we have no name. Let us call it the compass of the heart.” I love that don’t you?

“As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.”Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:13-19

“You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you.”
A Course in Miracles W-191.9:1-4

Namaste

Alaska - photo credit: Aaron Springston

Heart connections run deep. Sometimes we notice they’ve developed over decades; often they happen in an instant. Here in the rehab hospital, where I am strengthening myself to go home and begin life with below-the-knee amputations, I love each and every person I’ve met. But occasionally there is something deeper which occurs when our eyes meet. We seem to know each other and are getting reacquainted. A few moments ago when the night nurse came on for her shift, we gleefully clasped hands upon seeing each other again. There are a few others, including physical therapists and the rest of the staff. There’s one nurse who is obviously an evangelical Christian. When I was having a problem yesterday, I announced to the team that I wasn’t afraid to die and it was okay. This particular woman grabbed my hand and said something like, “when you know Jesus Christ, you’re not afraid of the hereafter.” I smiled at her, put one hand on my heart and held the other up in true Paula White fashion. We are now sisters. What a whirlwind this life is!

“In the temple, Holiness waits quietly for the return of them that love it. The Presence knows they will return to purity and to grace. The graciousness of God will take them gently in, and cover all their sense of pain and loss with the immortal assurance of their Father’s Love. There, fear of death will be replaced with joy of life. For God is life, and they abide in life. Life is as holy as the Holiness by which it was created. The Presence of Holiness lives in everything that lives, for Holiness created life, and leaves not what It created holy as Itself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-14.IX.4:1-7

“And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 497:24-27

Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is fascinating, for many reasons. Reality is something which metaphysical students examine frequently. What seems real to our human senses, quantum physics explains is mostly thin air. I’ve heard it said that reality is that which does not change. Looked at from that angle, reality must be spiritual, because matter always changes. The phenomenon we have called A.I. has changed our perceptions of reality quite quickly in the past few years. Social media has manipulated our opinions in a way which would be amusing, if it were not so frightening. At first we saw our friends and loved ones believing outlandish claims. From baby owls riding on their mother’s backs, to believing beloved political and movie stars are working for the downfall of society, many of us have “drunk the KoolAid”. Social media bots are affirming our fears and stoking our anger. Now it’s creating interesting stories about people we follow, and making us believe our heroes are doing things like saving babies from floods. All of this may seem unimportant, but it’s shaping our thoughts and beliefs. So we get back to the metaphysical principles of recognizing reality versus illusions. It is more important than ever!

“Fantasy is a distorted form of vision. Fantasies of any kind are distortions, because they always involve twisting perception into unreality. Actions that stem from distortions are literally the reactions of those who know not what they do. Fantasy is an attempt to control reality according to false needs. Twist reality in any way and you are perceiving destructively. Fantasies are a means of making false associations and attempting to obtain pleasure from them. But although you can perceive false associations, you can never make them real except to yourself. You believe in what you make. If you offer miracles, you will be equally strong in your belief in them. The strength of your conviction will then sustain the belief of the miracle receiver. Fantasies become totally unnecessary as the wholly satisfying nature of reality becomes apparent to both giver and receiver. Reality is ‘lost’ through usurpation, which produces tyranny. As long as a single ‘slave’ remains to walk the earth, your release is not complete. Complete restoration of the Sonship is the only goal of the miracle-minded.”

A Course in Miracles T-1.VII.3:1-14

“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. ’Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 480:31-5

A New Voice

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

The Journey - By Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice --

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do --

determined to save

the only life you could save.”

― Mary Oliver

“Salvation is nothing more than ‘right-mindedness’ which is not the One-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before One-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.”

A Course in Miracles T-4.II.10:1-5

“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance 

of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet-shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to benighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ 

Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morning beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wisemen were led to behold and to follow this daystar of divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page vii:1-12

“Nerding Out” On Classical Music

Helene Grimaud - pianist and lover of wolves

“I’ve loved being able to nerd out with you over classical music!” This is a statement made to me by a patient care assistant as she joined me in listening to Helene Grimaud play Beethoven on the piano. Turns out this young woman had played the piano all her life, played violin with her college Orchestra, and loved everything classical. She was lamenting the fact there was no place to hear opera in this area. I was able to introduce her to the Opera in the Ozarks, a training ground for professional opera singers. Even though there are only three or four performances left in this season, she’s hoping to catch one. I tell you this because every interaction we have is important. Why was I listening to piano music when she came into the room, rather than an audiobook with my headsets? As I understand divine guidance, or going with the flow, it’s because it was all part of the soup of consciousness. This young woman felt as though she had given up her musical aspirations, but I shared with her that I once went 12 years without touching a keyboard, and it felt great to come back. Just as it’s feeling great to come back from the current hiccup in my life.

“There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. And where They are is Heaven and is peace.”
A Course in Miracles T-29.V.1:1-5

“Japhet (Noah’s son). A type of spiritual peace, flowing from the understanding that God is the divine Principle of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child of His care.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 589:8-11

Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity

The Light Above My Bed 

This is my second full day in the physical rehabilitation hospital. Their signs tell me that they are in the top 4% in the nation (by many standards) and from what I’ve witnessed today, I’d put them at the top! What an interesting, knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, encouraging group of young people I’m getting to know! The art on the walls of this facility is quirky and beautiful. (My room has photos of peanuts doing odd things, and a hugely detailed lady bug on an iris). The walls are in contrasting colors of calm, the rest is glass, which shows off state-of-the-art equipment and inspiring quotes. Seeing the world through the lens of forced hospitalization is different, without a doubt. We create our own bubbles, and when forced into a new one, we see through new eyes.


“Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity:

‘Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.’

Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, — a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God’s care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 66:1-16

“There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind, because you are the perceiver. They must also be in his, because you are perceiving him. See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.”
A Course in Miracles T-5.III.3:1-5