Me and Pi...

After seeing there was a movie being made of the book  LIFE OF PI, I decided to reread the book.   It had been a long time but now I’m seeing why I liked it.   The protagonist, the main character, Pi, reminds me of me...  Pi is an Indian boy (That's India not Am. Indian) who grows up in his father's zoo and is intrigued by religion.  He is so intrigued that by the time he is 16 he is a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim.  There is an absolutely funny but touching scene when, with his parents out on a stroll, they meet not one of the spiritual leaders of those religions but all three.  The spiritual leaders are all ranting to Pi’s parents that he has to choose that he cannot be all three. 
Pi has done all this unbeknownst to his parents even.  Finally in a pause, Pi’s mother turns to him.  Addressing the question about how he cannot be all three but must choose, 
“Hmmmm Piscine?  (his actual name, Pi is the shortened version) Mother nudged me.  “How do you feel about the question?”
“Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.‘  I just want to love God.”  I blurted out, and looked down, red in the face." 
I’m not quite through a third of the novel, and yes it is fiction.  I will finish it before the movie comes out in the middle of November.  
Oh and something else, Pi goes on to grow up and get degrees in zoology and religious studies.  My degrees are in zoology and philosophy. 
LIFE OF PI is written by Yann Martel.  The movie trailer looks spectacular.   In the story Pi’s family eventually moves to Canada but there is a shipwreck and Pi and some of the zoo animals are the only survivors.  Pi survives on a life boat with a Bengal Tiger. 



God is Not Silent...

No matter what some tell us God is not silent.  Words of love are the way that we can tell that it is the voice of God.  You can hear the voice of God and remember it is a voice of Love.  Here is the voice of God as heard by Neale Donald Walsh which he published in his CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD.
“I will not leave you, I cannot leave you, for you are My Creation and My Product, My daughter and My son, My purpose and My ... Self.
Call on Me, therefore wherever and whenever you are separate from the peace that I am.
I will be there.
With Truth,
And Light,
And Love.

and Jesus said: "Peace Be Still"...

Of all the great teachers, probably the one that the people of the west are most acquainted with is a Jewish man known as Jesus.   And yet what do we know?  So much as been added and subtracted to his legacy long after his death and resurrection.
If we look only to the words of Matthew, his follower we can find these:
‘Judge not that you be not judged.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing...
You shall know them by their fruits.’
and,’ Ask, and it will be given to you ; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.’   
And then there is: ‘Love you enemy, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.’
Those are not easy things to do.  But think about them.  Do they feel like they would be the teachings of a great teacher?  From what you know of Jesus, do they sound like they would be his teachings?  Are they worth paying attention to?
And at this time when storms rage in the oceans and over land, remember the story of Jesus in the fishing boat.  He was tired from all the demands of the people who wanted his healing, his attention, just being next to him, and had gone out with his friends on the lake and laid down in the boat to sleep.  It seemed that being out on the water was the only way he could get some time to himself.  A storm came up and his friends that were on the boat with him, who knew him best, became frightened.  They woke him up.  He was a bit upset and called them men of little faith.  Then he stood up and spoke to the storm.   “peace, be still”  The storm quieted.  His followers were in awe.  Who is this man?
If we call ourselves Christians we need to ask that question... of ourselves... Who is/was this man?  Is he God, is he Man?  Does he perhaps teach us that there is god in all of us?  Peace, Be Still...

Take a minute this weekend to pray for the East coast...

If you feel so inclined, consider taking a moment this weekend to send some calming energy and/or prayers to the east coast of the USA as well as the Caribbean where Hurricane Sandy has already hit Jamaica and other areas.   Don't worry about the outcome or how you do it just sincerely send calm and love.  The Hurricane may hit the New York, New Jersey area where it will combine with another storm.   Thank you for your consideration...

Connected to the Mother.... Wow...

The harmonic frequencies of the planet earth in the nineties maintained an average of 7.83 cycles per second or 7.83 Hertz.   These frequencies have only been able to be measured in the last 100 years.  The HeartMath Institute in Northern California began to do some research and found the the Harmonic Frequencies of the planet and the frequencies of the human heart were very similar.   This prompted more research.  From Gregg Braden’s WALKING BETWEEN THE WORLDS, the science of compassion.
“The studies demonstrated that not only is the  human heart ‘tuned’ to this signal from the earth, additionally the earth appears to respond to the changes in the human heart.”  He goes on to say, “Now, an exciting view of our relationship to the earth begins to unfold.  Beyond the flesh, bones, hair and organs of a life form walking upon the world, we have direct knowledge of a resonant link, a relationship based upon our ability to tune to the patterns offered to us by our nearest signal of reference, our earth home.”
When I read this all I could say to myself was “WoW”.  If our bodies have a direct connection to the planet just think what that means and could mean.  “Wow”. 

Attitudes of Godliness...

The Five Attitudes of Godliness

1. Joyful

2. Loving

3. Accepting

4. Blessing

5. Gratitude

From Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsh

http://www.cwg.org/index.php

This is Compassion...

'If the meeting becomes too much imagine yourself floating above and just observing.'
What a great and timely reminder.   To become the observer in any situation gives one great insight and can lead to compassion.  If you are upset by any situation try imagining yourself as a completely unbiased observer.   Also try observing yourself when something upsets you.  This is not an easy thing to do but you might find it very interesting to be yourself and observe yourself.   Once you can observe your self and others in an unbiased state as possible you can begin to understand what makes you or another do the things you do.  This is compassion.  

God IS Love...

The belief in Hell and a god that hates his creations (us) so much that he would fling us into eternal suffering is an old belief.  Its the best that people of old could do.  This idea of God came about at a time when it was almost impossible to even conceive of a God that is All.   Think about what a God of Love, that is All, Everywhere, All knowing would be like...  Think about how we have been told... God is Love... what does that mean?  Total destruction of someone or even worse, making them endure eternal punishment is more of a hating emotion don’t you think.   God is love...

Decision and Intent are So Important...

It is vitally important to realize the far reaching effects of our very actions and thoughts and emotions.  We can build upon the positive actions and thoughts and emotions of others to reach our goals from worldly success to simply improving the life we live.   In filling our world with the most positive things we can conceive and allowing the wings of those positive things of others to lift us from our own painful and sometimes suffering states we can live better and change the world.  It does, however, take intent and effort.
“The universe holds it’s breath as we choose, instant by instant, which pathway to follow; for the universe, the very essence of life itself, is highly conscious.  Every act, thought, and choice adds to a permanent mosaic;  our decisions ripple through the universe of consciousness to affect the lives of all.  Lest this idea be considered either merely mystical or fanciful, let’s remember the fundamental tenet of the new theoretical physics:  Everything in the universe is connected with everything else.”
Dr David R. Hawkins POWER vs FORCE, The Hidden determinants of Human Behavior.
Remember that not only can you effect the universe but you can make a decision to use the positive choices of others for your own enhancement.   Also we must keep in mind that we also influence and are influenced by the negatives we choose and the ones chosen by others.    This is why decision and intent are so important.    

The Essential Truths of the World's Great Religions.

This is another interesting tidbit from Dr. Hawkins.  This is from his book DISCOVERY OF THE PRESENCE  OF GOD.  It is nice to see this information all in one place.
“A brilliant distillation of the essential spiritual truths and the world’s great religions is exemplified by the following:
Christianity is the path of love and forgiveness.
Buddhism is the path of compassion.
Judaism is the path of living by sacred law.
Baha’i is the path of unity and peace.
Islam is the path of submission to the will of God.
Confucianism is the path of deliberate tradition.
Taoism is the path of ultimate reality.
Native American Practice is the path of primal spirituality.
Shintoism is the path of tribal ancestry.
Hinduism is the path of knowledge, action, and devotion.
Science of mind is the path of the Divine Principle of Love and Law.”

Dr. Hawkins also adds “The Global Heart Vision is of a world that works for everyone.”  Looking this up came up with the information that it is the vision of the organization called Science of Mind started by Ernest Holmes and has taken the form of the Churches of Spiritual Living.  

Isn't it Worth it???

What can we do in a world that appears to have gone mad?  We can make the decision to change how we feel and then watch how it changes things around us.  Often changing how we feel takes a lot of effort because we are so often immediately in the mindset of reaction.  But with a little fore thought and practice we can smile at the person that irritates us, laugh at our own folly, allow a pain or perceived slight to slide off of us.
It has been said that every little thought, emotion, feeling, action, is recorded for all time in the ethers.  If with just a little effort we can add positive vibrations to the energy of the earth instead of negative ones, isn’t it worth it?

It is Helpful...

Today I was putting a lot of thought into what to write that might be helpful to someone on a spiritual path or someone that might be having life problems.  It was then that I read this from Dr. David Hawkins book, DISCOVERY OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
“A useful decision or choice is to decide to stop mentally talking about everything and refrain from interjecting comments, opinions, preferences, and value statements.... All thinking, from a spiritual viewpoint, is merely vanity, illusion, and pomposity.  The less one thinks, the more delightful life becomes.  Thinkingness eventually becomes replaced by knowingness.  That one ‘is’ does not really need any thought at all.  It is helpful, therefore, to make a decision to stop mental conversation and useless babbling.” 

This is Personal-Retirement...

After a lifetime of social work and chronic physical conditions, a positive and supportive relationship and retirement set the stage for a move from one part of the country to another and made an intensive search a reality.   Add to the mix a synchronistic friend in the form of an angel with books and ideas, and the search for the God of Love began to clear hurdles one after another.   Ken Carey, Barbara Marciniak,  Dolores Cannon, Don Miguel Ruiz, Bruce Lipton, Robert Schwartz, Michael Newton, Kryon, Gregg Braden, and, of course, Dr. David R. Hawkins,  each one slipping in to add insights to the one before or to answer the begged question.    Dr. Hawkins writes about truth and how he came to know how it can be tested.   Ask and you will find and one step after another the truth becomes clearer and you are set free one step at a time.   We probably won’t remember it all, put all the pieces together, until we leave this difficult beautiful place, this planet of joy and sorrow but there is a lot we can know now.    One makes a choice to come here knowing it can be difficult.   There are a lot of good intentions.  And then we wake up to find ourselves in these heavy clunky bodies and soon forget who we really are and where we came from.   We have no idea why we came here and why we took this body, this family, this gender, this locality.  We can only improve our situation with intent and will. Some get so bogged down in the energy of the life they are living it takes a kind of intervention from another human or a saint or angel to help them.   The more of us that make the choice for truth and compassion the faster the higher truth will spread and the faster more people will work to pull themselves out of the patterns of pain and violence that has them bogged down.   Prayer, meditation, and intent are what it takes to start and to move us on our own search for the God of Love.  

This is a Personal Story...

This is a personal story of the search for the God of Love but It is being written in third person as though it was about someone else.  I am writing it this way because I want it to be less about me than the process and hopefully not ego driven.  
There was really only one choice and that was get an education that would be involved in nature.   Wildlife and forestry was chosen but somewhere in the middle something changed and it became philosophy.   The philosophy would allow the entry into Lutheran Seminary to become a Lutheran minister.   And that was what happened.  The first and only year of seminary was difficult.  It turned out that, at least in this case, theology professors did not like anyone asking them questions.  They were not questions designed to make the professors look bad they were just the questions of an inquiring mind.   One of the professors even said that the person asking these questions like was hard to love.  This from the place that was supposed to teach the God of Love.   The questioner stopped asking questions because he left seminary, disappointed, angry, but even more determined to find the God of Love.  Now without a profession when a job in social services was offered it was gratefully accepted.   That was the beginning of a lifelong service in social work.   Transcendental meditation, psychics, mysticism, book after book became part of the search sandwiched between emotionally taxing work and dealing with the rest of life’s problems.   Shamanism seemed a nice fit but an invitation to study under a Lakota holy man was turned down.  A Lakota Pipe Carrier seemed as narrow as Lutheran Minister. (Did you know that both the Lakota and the Buddhists fly prayer flags?)
More books....  Jane Roberts and Seth, A COURSE IN MIRACLES, and Neale Donald Walsh and CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD.  Neale’s CONVERSATIONS struck a chord.  Here was the God of Love that the search was all about.  The searcher had always clung to the words from the Christian Bible.  “Ask and you shall find.”  and “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free”.  Could it be that the questioning seminarian and the pipe carrier dropout was finally finding a truth?  

Every Choice You Make.....

The same information coming from different sources lends integrity to the information.  This is from an older book by Gregg Braden called WALKING BETWEEN THE WORLDS, The Science of Compassion.  These quotes are about making choices for compassion and how it effects the world around us and moves out in ever widening ripples of influence in the world.

“Each time someone else opens up enough to recognize that they have a choice in how they respond to life, your choice of compassion assures that they have another possibility to select from...
Someone must do it first.  Someone must take the initiative to move beyond the cycle of old choices and responses and recognize the opportunity of a higher response to life’s offering.”

Every choice you make for love and compassion has influence beyond your imagination.  But even if it just made one person feel better wouldn’t that be enough?

Claiming Responsibility for Humanity...

This planet has been in war for generations.  Time after time there has been genocide often perpetrated by religious organizations.   Who thinks up these things?  Who starts and perpetuates these conflicts?  The answers to these questions are very difficult to face and understand.  Who has done all these negative things to the planet and to its inhabitants?  There is no other possible answer WE have done these things.  It has been obvious a long time that we are one... All are children of God.  We are all made of the same thing.  And once out of this human life we are all powerful infinite beings.  That we are ONE is a powerful insight but one that is very difficult for most people to accept.  “I am not at war”, we cry.  “I am not killing people and killing off their culture.”  There is no Them.  It is our participation in the collective consciousness.  It is our own attitudes that are mirrored to us as how humans can be to each other.
In the late 1980’s the collective consciousness tipped.  There are now enough individuals finding peace in their hearts and lives.  There are now enough people concerned about others.  There are now finally people showing compassion.  So why do we still have war? Genocide?  murder? homelessness?  The planet is in the process of changing.  The old ways are fighting hard for survival.   If we can take responsibility for ourselves and for the condition of the planet we can hasten the evolutionary changes.  As a seemingly separate expression of life on this planet it is difficult to claim any responsibility for all of the horrible things taking place but the more of us that can do this the faster and easier it will be for Peace to come to earth.  

Revolution or Evolution...

I’ve been watching the first few episodes of a television apocalyptic drama called Revolution.   It’s another of JJ Abrams stories.  He is the man more or less responsible for LOST and a lot of other TV and Movies.   Revolution is about a world sometime in the not so distant future that has lost power.  All the lights go out. Trains, cars, and airplanes stop running.  No computers, no television, no phones...   It is a story about the break down of society, looting, survival.   As I was watching this show I started thinking about how there are some parts of our earth society even now that are not able to experience what energy and power does for us in the United States and other modernized cultures.  In the cultures in Africa that are starving and dying of disease many have never been able to turn on the lights, take clean water out of a faucet.  In a burned out bombed out street in Libya a man sits on a chair in front of his home.  The bomb killed his wife and children, he has nothing else to lose.  Whatever bits and pieces of modern luxury he might have had mean nothing to him now.  It is time we took care of the present and not worried about the future.  Find peace within ourselves.  Support Doctors Across Borders and other agencies that do so much good work in cultures that are dying.  Pray for peace.  Send love and peaceful thoughts anytime you hear there is pain and violence.
Teach our children, and this is perhaps the biggest one, teach them what they have and what they can do with themselves.  Teach them that they have choices and those choices might be the choices that bring peace, the end of hunger, the end of homelessness, disease.
Be grateful every day for who and what you are because if you don’t like who and what you are and have, you have a much better chance of changing it than a child in Africa or the Middle East, or Haiti.  

Are you a hummingbird person?

This morning a hummingbird came to the fuchsia plant hanging on my balcony and methodically took a drink from every flower on the plant.   Those little guys are such a joy.  I have, perhaps, adopted the totem meanings for myself but it feels good to see them and who knows, maybe they are bringing me a message of joy. 
http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/h/totem.htm  has a nice summary of the different thought on the totem meaning of hummingbirds.   This is a very small part of what the site has to say; “There is something inside the soul of all of us that wants to soar through sunbeams, then dance midair in a delicate mist, then take a simple bath on a leaf.There is something in our souls that wants to hover at beautiful moments in our lives, making them freeze in time. There is something in us that wants to fly backwards.... Some of us are just hummingbird people.”
I think that part that says 'hover at the beautiful moments in our lives, making them freeze in time' is what my photography is all about... 
Are you a hummingbird person?

Change, 2012

How do you handle change?  Often it is difficult to handle change, especially when we are faced with a lot of change suddenly.  There is a lot of talk about what will happen in December when we reach the date that some have said will be the end of the world.  It is because of the shifts going on in our planet that has brought about the changes taking place.  And if we are afraid of the end of the world we see the changes taking place as foretelling total destruction.   All that is going on in the world is just that, change.  Not the end of the world.  I like this quote from Gregg Braden in his book WALKING BETWEEN THE WORLDS; the science of Compassion.
“The laws of creation assure us that to the degree change is judged and discouraged, to that degree is change experienced in life as challenge.”
Change is happening, it has always happened.  Whether the shift in energy of the planet in this time, 2012, has anything to do with the change that is happening doesn’t matter.  Expect change, roll with it, encourage it, don’t judge it as bad or good... 

Pain and Suffering...

Sometimes we are so caught up in our own world that we fail to notice the pain and suffering that goes on around us.  And we live in the country that is probably the richest nation in the world.   Having worked as a social worker my entire life I have been exposed to pain and suffering within my world and yet I can little fathom the suffering going on in the refugee camps of Africa resulting from genocide and hunger.  I can’t imagine what the people of Haiti have gone through during and after the devastating earthquake and subsequent attempts to recover and find some semblance of normalcy.
There is a lot of pain and suffering in the world.  Siddhartha Gautama the historical figure who became the Buddha is said to have left his princely palace as a young man only to find death and suffering.
Stories abound of Jesus healing the sick, feeding the hungry.  I think it is a safe bet that he knew about pain and suffering.  Are you aware of the pain and suffering around you and in far off places?  These who suffer, who are concerned about survival needs, food, shelter, medical care, have very little chance of climbing the spiritual ladder until some of those needs are met.  What can we do?  A smile or an unspoken blessing is a good way to start.  My dear friend always took a plate of food from his holiday feast to the streetperson that slept in a doorway close.   Buying an extra can of food to go to a food bank or volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen are ways that can be helpful. 
When you look at yourself and complain about an ache or a pain be grateful for the roof over your head.   When you are passed over for a raise at work, be grateful for a job.
Take a look around you.  Perhaps the greatest thing anyone can do is simply to be aware and realize how much suffering and pain is in the world.  

Compassion is an Awareness...

The path to Spiritual Mastery and the evolution of mankind from a violent race to a peaceful, powerful, evolved humankind must include compassion and unconditional love.  And, in fact, unconditional love and compassion go hand in hand.  The  definition of unconditional love is contained within the words themselves; loving without condition.
Compassion is a little harder to get a handle on.  Compassion is viewing, observing an individual/group without the viewer’s individual bias coloring the observation.  It is knowing that behind the appearance, action, and being of any individual is a body and mind and a lifetime of programming that has placed them where they are at that moment.  Those individuals include ourselves.  Recognizing that our programming places us where we are, giving us reasons for who and what we are as well as what we do is not easy.   We must recognize first the need for compassion and then overcome our own programming and our own biases.
Two quotes from WALKING BETWEEN THE WORLDS:  The Science of Compassion.
by Gregg Braden.
From the dedication:  “It is you who will anchor a new wisdom rooted in compassion, laying the foundation for those with the courage to follow.  It is you who are asked to remember love, compassion and trust while living in a world that has hated, judged and feared.”
and from the preface:  “Compassion is an awareness that you become, rather than something that you do on occasion.”