Lenten Wisdom

Balancing the Spirit Within

The Spirit is the essence of who we are. Divine energy within us is potent and "imperialistic" and we are deluded to think we can control it ourselves. [Nobody can see God and live]. The spirit is fire and rain, joy and peace, ecstatic and tranquil. But we dont know how to be still and calm this internal force. We have forgotten how to channel and balance our desire. We have created in our culture a "conspiracy against the interior life" and here are the 3 conspirators: narcissism, which accts for our heartaches; pragmatism, which accts for our headaches; and unbridled restlessness, which accts for our insomnia. We've forgotten that we must reverence and attend to our spiritual energy.

Adapted - Fr Richard Rolheiser in The Holy Longing (thx Benedictine Friends!!) Good Wisdom.

This reminds me of the Marianne Williamson quote:

"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves,
who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually,
who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve
the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't
feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within
us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated
from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

Background Noise

All our life is filled with noise,
constant, inescapable chatterings,
for our activities and automatisms
stir them up very more strongly.
But the noise which often breaks
the silence where one seeks peace,
is of a different kind.
These babbles come from our
disordered feelings,
shameful desires.
mistaken ideas.
It is useless to try to exorcise them
by religious ceremonies
or pseudo-psychic therapies.
There is only faith,
confidence in God
who alone can replace them
with a divine
and still more inescapable
background noise:
the universal harmony of
the kingdom of Heaven.

David Melodia, Lord of Silence
http://www.quaker.org/melodia/silence/

The Gift of Intuition

"Do not believe anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe anything simply because it is spoken by many. Do not believe anything simply because it is found written in religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on authority of your teachers/elders. Do not believe tradition because it has passed thru generations. But after observation/analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." ~Buddha

All of the above have been at some point, interpreted by a human. You must realize that you hold the truth within you. You have the ability to discern what is good and true and what benefits all. Use that! Ask yourself: Is this inclusive? Is this respectful to all people? Does this point the way to peace?

Believe that you are more about love than conformity and complacency. The loving truth within you is revealed by your intuition...listen to your inner voice, and your outer actions will be pure and true. That doesn't mean everyone will be comfortable with you. On the contrary, some will be threatened because your truth illuminates their darkness.

Be humble enough also to find your darknesses reflected in your relationships with others. What you see that so antagonizes you about them, is probably what you need to explore and come to peace with within yourself. If you hear yourself defending yourself, ask what part of your character is feeling vulnerable and why. For love requires no defense. Love, as with the example of Jesus, is not defensive. This is not an easy practice, but it is the highest practice of humanity.

Everything can be supported with reason and loving intuition. Look for the win/win. Look for a balance between logic and love. Be the love you want to see; be the change you want to see. Be patient with each other, like a parent with a beloved child. Choose your responses with loving care and if you cant do that, take a time out until you can! ;-)

This is the message of all religions: You are love. You are loved. You have the incredible power of love within you and it is your job to extend that to the world. This is the message of intuition. Use intuition to interpret what happens around you, and you will always be approaching the truth.

"To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest."
— Pema Chödrön, Buddhist Monk

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God." (becoming Love)
-- Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century

In other words, we are all on this journey together and everyday we have new lessons to learn. Be Kind, Be Love.

© Peggy Beatty 2011

Monday Morning Prayer

Let me hear what you will speak when I turn to you in my heart. Psalm 85:8

Like and infant's open-eyed wonder
and the insights of a wise grandmother,
like a young man's vision for justice
and the vitality that shines in a girl's face,
like tears that flow in a friend bereaved
and laughter in a lover's eyes,
you have given me ways of seeing, O God,
you have endowed me with sight like your own.
Let these be alive in me this day,
let these be alive in me.

John Philip Newell

You and I

I see my beauty in you. I become
a mirror that cannot close its eyes

to your longing. My eyes wet with
yours in the early light. My mind

every moment giving birth, always
conceiving, always in the ninth

month, always the come-point.
How do I stand this? We become these

words we say, a wailing sound moving
out into the air. These thousands of

worlds that rise from nowhere, how
does your face contain them? I'm

a fly in your honey, then closer, a
moth caught in flame's allure, then

empty sky stretched out in homage.
Rumi

True Happiness Comes Only from Self Understanding (and the Work it Takes to be True YOU!)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/opening-happiness

I read this article on Opening to Happiness with interest this morning. I like it's pragmatic correlation of Buddhist practice and psychological rationale. So this is a little different post than I usually offer, but I enjoyed the time to follow the impulse. ;-)

I am reading a book called The Steps of Essence, by Hanns-Oskar Porr, that describes the first call to becoming who you truly are with this analogy: In the movie, The Matrix, Neo can take a blue pill that allows him to live every day in bliss, but the trade off is that he gives up his autonomy and control to an unknown force that renders him a mindless slave - happy, but mindless. OR he can take the red pill which will afford him to learn the truth about himself. He will understand the forces that control him and learn to gain freedom from them, but at a steep price. The road will be hard; he will enter into dark places of overwhelming fear. But he will learn to master his fear and to hold it in tension with all the good that he finds. The journey will reveal the truth and the truth will guide the journey. He will learn who he is. He will become his most authentic self. Happiness will look more like self-acceptance and deep joy, for Neo will be the Hero of his own life.

I was intrigued with this because I think I missed this point in the movie. Or maybe not, it has been awhile since I saw The Matrix, but I am familiar with the choices that the pills afford. So, the first step is to say, ok I am willing to take the hard road. But here’s the catch: everyday you get the pill choice again...Will you choose to wait for happiness to present itself to you, to be a victim of life, a sort of bystander to your own existence? Or will you choose to to be the Hero of your life, to confront your fear, put aside some of those things you think you "need," and ride the wonderful experience of your true Self? The choice to hold the tension between what should and should not be is the demand of truly living YOUR [authentic] life.

At my niece’s graduation, the priest gave a sermon on "The Road Ahead" for the grads. He said that Jesus would ask them at every turn, “Do you love me?” To answer to this question, we must make the choice of pills. If we answer yes, we take the red pill. We agree to be Christ-like in love which is to love ferociously, and, yes, to suffer for it. To love is to be vulnerable. It is to bear all the sweet goodness of your divine Self to the other, with no defense; to be completely compassionate. The red pill requires us to be loyal to truth, above all else. And the truth is, Love is who we are! Every day we are faced with the choice to be either authentic or robotic. Every day we choose to take the high road or the low. Everyday we can allow the circumstances of life to control us, or we can choose our destiny. To know ourselves as love requires incredible courage and strength. To remain positive, optimistic, “happy” requires us to be a warrior for love and kindness, even at those times when we would rather not be. To truly live into love, which is our authentic nature, is to encounter hurt, absorb it and love harder.


We can run from the demands of life and relationship and never know who we are, or we can meet life head on with the Wisdom (yes, this choice is a wisdom choice) that happiness means more that just getting what I want. Which pill will you take?

© Peggy Beatty 2011