Content or not …

Creation of Sandy Wythawai Starbird

After watching the movie, Brad's Status, I'm seeing people in a different way. In this movie, Brad -- played by Ben Stiller -- is dissatisfied with his life. He thinks all his friends are better off than him, in every way. When he sees that they're not really, he decides they're not even his friends, but only pretending. Everyone he meets, he imagines enriching his life, then quickly imagines them using him and throwing him away. He thinks his son is going to Harvard and gets very excited thinking about his success; then he imagines his son making fun of him on national tv and he resents the imagined success. This goes on and on with every situation, until finally someone he has just met calls him on his self-pity. I won't tell you how it ends in case you want to see this film. But I did have the realization that many people I know feel exactly the same way as Brad. What causes some people to be happy with what's right in front of them, and others to want everything to be different? I don't know the cause, but I do know the cure: Gratitude for every little thing you see and do. I think being happy might just be a learned behavior. We tend to think of it as some sort of divine dispensation, but nothing can give you what you do not want. This movie has given me much to ponder. Namaste, my friends ...


"Many theories relative to God and man neither make man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we commonly entertain about happiness and life afford no scatheless and permanent evidence of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:5

“Imagined slights, remembered pain, past disappointments, perceived injustices and deprivations all enter into the special relationship, which becomes a way in which you seek to restore your wounded self-esteem. What basis would you have for choosing a special partner without the past? Every such choice is made because of something ‘evil’ in the past to which you cling, and for which must someone else atone.”
A Course in Miracles T-16.VII.1:3-5

What Unites Us

This evening my book club celebrated reading and discussing our 200th book! Our book was one I read in 2021, and I will repeat what I wrote about it then:

Photo of book club circa 2017

Dan Rather’s book, What Unites Us, is one which I highly recommend. He is old enough to remember what life was like in the aftermath of the great depression, times before we had government programs to help people in need, along with the suffering which was thought of as normal. When someone lost their job, it felt like death, because there was not another job to be found. Neighbors would do what they could for each other, and when little Dan asked his mother why they were helping the people across the street (thinking perhaps it was pity which inspired his folks to give) he was told it wasn’t because they felt sorry for them, but because they understood the feeling of being in need. He writes of empathy building community. In the last three decades, I’ve watched our little town band together to help people in every kind of need that you can imagine. I have been the recipient of that kindness more than once, and it has built empathy within me, too. When we don’t blame people for their misfortune, we don’t judge their circumstances, but simply meet their need, whatever it may be. It seems so simple, and it is a beautiful thing to watch in action. I wish everyone in our country could read or listen to this book by Mr. Rather. Good will multiplies exponentially, don’t you think? Let’s go forth and multiply!

“Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. By being united this mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.”

A Course in Miracles T-1.III.7:1-6

“Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites understanding to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 506:10-14

Ranting and Raving and Forgiving

I went off on a rant today when an old contrarian friend from the west coast called me to question the veracity of a Rumi quote which I often use at the bottom of my emails. With the horror show which is happening within our American democracy, it’s easy to become overwrought. After pontificating for five minutes or so, then rationally talking to him about whatever-the-heck he was asking, I deep cleaned my kitchen. Looking back on this situation, I am recommending to myself (and you) to find physically-demanding outlets for the frustration which builds up knowing what is happening to us. It is heartbreaking. But it also tells me how desperate we the people are for change. More on that another day. For now, I highly recommend the cathartic activity of cleaning …

“Attack is always physical. When attack in any form enters your mind you are equating yourself with a body, since this is the ego’s interpretation of the body. You do not have to attack physically to accept this interpretation. You are accepting it simply by the belief that attack can get you something you want. If you did not believe this, the idea of attack would have no appeal for you. When you equate yourself with a body you will always experience depression. When a child of God thinks of himself in this way he is belittling himself, and seeing his brothers as similarly belittled. Since he can find himself only in them, he has cut himself off from salvation.”

A Course in Miracles T-8.VII.1:1-8

“Should the world’s sin and sorrow round thee rave, Pierce thou the dark with Truth’s undaunted ray, Send out its light of joy to help and save, That more and more shines to the perfect day.”

Christian Science Hymnal Page 172 Verse 3

The Faces of Loneliness

I listen to audiobooks while I do chores and cook, and I’ve heard numerous thought-provoking books. For instance, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The concepts presented are fascinating. A young 19th-century girl laments her life, wishing she had more freedom, and that she wasn’t being forced into a marriage. She makes a pact with the “old gods”, but she wishes for the wrong thing and ends up living forever, but no one can remember her once she’s out of their sight. The life of isolation she is thrown into is haunting, frightening, and sad. Her plight brings to mind the many present-day people who are lonesome. I listen, trying to understand what brings on their feelings of wistful longing. Or is it even longing? I’m not sure, but I’d like to empathize. Another audiobook, What Alice Forgot, is about a woman who has a head injury and forgets the last ten years of her life. The lack of connection she feels with family and friends is sort of the flip side of Addie’s isolation. It takes my thoughts to different aspects of loneliness and the perceptions associated with this feeling of lack. I heard an interview today with a young man talking about loneliness and the effect it has had on many of his friends. They have become members of violent white nationalist groups because they feel a kinship in banding together against people. Let’s reach out to others, giving a kind word to sad, perhaps frightening, people. We never know when a kind word will change a life …

“The ego thought system must hide our awareness of our oneness in God in order to make the image of having a separate life for ourselves alone appear real to us. In order to experience this false thought system, we must be willing to set up barriers against remembering God’s oneness through denying our natural awareness of Love’s eternal presence. To experience this thought system of separation, we dream up a world where separate bodies rule the universe. In this dream, we, as separate individuals, are the judge of what is real and what is denied. We build up images of a kingdom that we rule alone and God’s oneness is sacrificed.” 

A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section I

“Abiding in Love, not one of you can be separated from me; and the sweet sense of journeying on together, doing unto others as ye would they should do unto you, conquers all opposition, surmounts all obstacles, and secures success.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellaneous Writings Page 137:7-11

Gratitude in Times of Crises

There was an interesting editorial in the Christian Science Monitor which spoke to gratitude in times of crisis. The essay mentioned that gratitude helps put a focus on the good in a situation, dampening fear. It helps people form stronger bonds across borders and through their differences. It encourages generosity. I found it particularly interesting that they referred to expressing appreciation as a kind of reset for thoughts, saying that it allows calm reflective thinking, which is just what we need in order to bring us a healing perspective during these times. These wise words can certainly be applied to many situations in our current atmosphere, don't you think? I'm going to practice this as a way of turning around fearful or defensive thinking when it occurs. If someone is expressing a thought which I find abrasive, I will find something to be grateful for — if not about them in particular, about the situation in general. Whatever the case, I love thinking about gratitude as a "reset"!!

“Through your gratitude you come to know your brother, and one moment of real recognition makes everyone your brother because each of them is of your Father. Love does not conquer all things, but it does set all things right.”

A Course in Miracles T-4.VI.7:5-6

“This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not ‘for the loaves and fishes,’ nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.”

MaryBaker Eddy - Science & Health Page 367:10-16

How Can There Be Less Than All?

 

When a Dog Runs Up (by Hafiz)

 

"Start seeing everything as God, but keep

it a secret.

 

Become like the man and woman who are

awestruck and nourished

listening to a golden nightingale sing

in a beautiful foreign language while God,

invisible to most, nests upon its tongue.

Hafiz, who can tell in this world that

when a dog runs up to you wagging its

ecstatic tail, you lean over and whisper in

its ear,

 

Beloved, I am so glad you are happy to  

see me! Beloved, I am so glad, so very glad

you have come!’

Hafiz

 

“But see the Love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere because it is everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him with them. They are part of you, as you are part of God. You are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God is understanding this. There is only one way out of the world’s thinking, just as there was only one way into it. Understand totally by understanding totality.”

A Course in Miracles T-7.VII.10:4-10

“God being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence?

How can there be less than all? 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 287: 13-16

No Worries Over Errant Thoughts

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

When we study divine metaphysics, quantum physics, and other related disciplines, we begin to examine our thoughts. We notice if we automatically go to the negative side of a what-if situation, and then do our best to “correct” it. In practices such as The Secret, we are taught that we can manifest things in our lives simply by thinking hard enough and long enough about them. Many of these disciplines cause students of divine Science to cringe, because we’re not trying to manipulate matter, but would rather see past these illusions to the truth of our Being. This morning, while listening to a Buddhist documentary, I heard the speaker tell us that “every thought we have doesn’t need to be true”. I love the way he explained that while many thoughts going through our mind are not ones we agree with, we needn’t be worried by them. When we realize we can acknowledge negative ideas and not claim them as our own, we are freed to laugh at ourselves and continue on, joyfully. Have a beautiful day, my friends …

“We said before that the Holy Spirit is evaluative, and must be. He sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to judge every thought you allow to enter it in the light of what God put there. Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. But what is out of accord entirely He rejects by judging against. This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified.”A Course in Miracles T-6.V-C.1:1-6

“Human thought never projected the least portion of true being. Human belief has sought and interpreted in its own way the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive sound.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page: 126:8-14