In Yoke

Watch closely. I am laying a foundation stone in Zion. A solid granite foundation, squared and true. And this is the meaning of the stone: “A TRUSTING LIFE WON’T TOPPLE.” I will make JUSTICE the measuring stick, and RIGHTEOUSNESS the plumb line for the building (that is your life). May I embody and manifest “a trusting life.” Trusting in faith, in Christ Jesus, who himself is the Cornerstone. Awaken me Lord Christ, and by your Spirit, in moans and groans I cannot even understand, pray for me, and enliven my spirit, that I might live in complete trust in your Word, in your life within me, in You, alone. For it is by your grace and only by your grace that I live move and have being. Amen. [Isaiah 28-The Message]

“We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.” -Meister Eckhart from Easwaran: The Lord of Love, immortal and infinite, comes as a divine incarnation in times of great crisis to rescue mankind from disaster. In age after age, whenever violence and hatred threaten the world, the Lord comes down to inspire and protect those who turn to him, who live in harmony with the law of unity. He comes to protect such people from the heavy odds ranged against them, and to re-establish peace on earth and good will among all. Yet there is another level on which this divine birth can take place. Every one of us has this choice: shall I prepare for the divine birth to take place in my consciousness by abolishing my own selfishness? It is up to you and me to keep our doors open, to put up a little sign, "Ready ...

My work as a technology company sales engineer, consultant, and manager has been greatly improved, augmented and complemented by our alliance and association with the folks at Clearview, the group of former Arthur Andersen, EDS, ACS,  and Accenture consultants who have built the Waco Internet Technology Gateway in Waco. This is the datacenter where we now maintain our offices in Downtown Waco. One thing I appreciate so much and have made part of my work day, and sales discipline—is taking painstaking time to prepare—especially for prospect presentations. The guys who have spent their careers as consultants know that this is very much a Best Practice. Now, when we are seeking to make a presentation to a client, or prospect, or even to have a discovery meeting to work on building a relationship, my work mate Josh and I make sure we rehearse that meeting, carefully scripting the message, carefully wording the ideas, the thought processes behind our solution or project plans. What ...

The wine of life is oozing drop by drop, The leaves of life are falling one by one.   – Omar Khayyam Easwaran muses: Like leaves, we come into this life, are here for a few days, and then are gone. Nobody remembers us, and nobody misses us. As long as we believe that we are separate, we inevitably have to die. Our immortality is in the whole, which never dies. In living just for personal profit and pleasure, no matter under what philosophical name we may call it, our real personality withers away. It cannot be otherwise. When you become aware that you are not a leaf but the tree , something amazing happens in your life: you are able to act spontaneously, almost effortlessly, for the good of all. This is the proof of your awareness that you are the tree: everywhere it will motivate you, everywhere you will see what contribution you can make. You won’t have to deliberate the pros and cons. You won’t need a computer to provide you with a plan of action. You will kn...

I let go my desire for security and survival. I let go my desire for esteem and affection. I let go my desire for power and control. I let go my desire to change the situation. As I walk this journey, in Christ, and seek to yield more and more of my will to His will, I find this unvarying litany returns to my consciousness on a regular basis. This is one of the ways he is teaching me to apply his life to my life, to envelop my life with the qualities of His Life. The “paradox of letting go” is a sacred alchemy. It seems that all the sinfulness and impurity in my life comes from my striving for power/control, esteem/affection, security/survival. I must decrease, while he must increase. This is true wisdom-the journey’s joy, the journey’s energies, are to come from His abundance, not from my own will’s striving. “Not my will but Thine be done”, and “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” These are Yeshua’s prayers, and indeed, I pray, are...

The more I sit with the wisdom of the ages, and study the mystics, the more congruence I begin to sense. One philosophical congruence is the concept of the power of NOW—as Eckhart Tolle has popularized. Approximately 500 years before Christ’s advent in the Middle East, the life of Siddhartha Gautama emanated in Nepal and Northern India. His noble eightfold path and his words and teachings still ring true. Many of the concepts of his teachings are not at all incompatible with the capacity we are given through life in Christ. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. -The Compassionate Buddha Eknath Easwaran comments: “When the mind is at rest, we are lifted out of time into the eternal present. The body, of course, is still subject to the passage of time. But in a sense, the flickering of the mind is our internal clock. When the mind...

“There is an underlying attitude that cripples and blinds each of us. It can be so pervasive that we do not often question it. This attitude is a perversion of the natural order created by our loneliness and insecurity, by the illusion of separateness, by ignorance. The problem, in a way, is quite simple: we think of ourselves too often and in the wrong way . The result is self importance (or its’ opposite, self hatred), and greed.” As I share the long and sometimes sordid story of my own autobiography, I do so from a “Spiritual lessons” point of view, keeping this aforementioned premise in mind. I can really relate to this…because for a great portion of my life- I have thought of myself too often and in the wrong way . I have been studying the enneagram as a way of self revelation and understanding for the purposes of transformation by the Spirit of Yahweh, through Jesus Christ(YESHUA-His Aramaic name). As an Enneagram three, who is seeking redemption from my natural b...

“A time is coming when people will go mad, and when they meet someone who is not mad, they will turn to him and say, “You are out of your mind”, just because he is not like them.” ~Abba Anthony In our churches and in our little mini cosmos that is Central Texas, this insight seems to be ever true. It is quite profound how what appears in the “world’s” eyes to be madness is actually eternal truth. The prophet Jeremiah states: "For my people are foolish ;they know me not;they are stupid children;they have no understanding. They are 'wise'—in doing evil! But how to do good they know not." May I be anchored in the truth of the Good News, and be ever migrating towards the One who holds all truth and all life in his power.

"Keep your attention within yourself (not in your head but in your heart).  Keep your mind there (in the heart), trying by every possible means to  find the place where the heart is, in order that, having found it, your mind  should constantly abide there. Wrestling thus, the mind will find the place of the heart.  This happens when grace produces sweetness and warmth in prayer...with God's help,  you will learn...from your own experience, by keeping your mind attentive  and in your heart holding Jesus, that is, His prayer -"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me!"  One of the holy fathers says: 'Sit in your cell and this prayer will teach you everything.' " - St. Simeon the New Theologian , Three Methods of Attention and Prayer This is so wonderful! Since 1999, my mantram has been the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me!"...it is mysterious to me how this little repetitive prayer when practiced faithfully, can correct wayward s...

Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of others; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another, for as you are, you are. -Thomas a Kempis Even if you have ninety-nine people cheering you, there will always be a hundredth to boo. That is the nature of life, and to deal with it, we need simply to learn not to be always on the lookout for appreciation and applause. If people say, "Oh, there is nobody like you," don't get elated. Don't pick up your telephone and call your friends to tell them what is being broadcast about you. That's what most of us do, you know; that's why telephones are so busy. It is also why so many people get dejected when fortune seems to frown. My spiritual teacher - a person who didn't mince words - used to tell me, "You can't shut other people's mouths." It took me years to understand that. This unlettered uneducated person knew that we don't have any control over other people...