In Yoke

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so one who wholly turneth unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed. -Thomas a Kempis We are made in the image of God. The image is there, but we need to put in the work to reveal it. Whenever I hear someone say, "This is just the way I am; I've got to learn to live with it," I want to plead, "Don't ever say that!" The miracle of human existence is that we can change . Simply by virtue of being human, we have the capacity to change ourselves completely. All of us carry a cleansing fire hidden inside. It may be banked with ashes, cold to the touch, but a spark of the divine is there nonetheless, ready to leap into life. It is nothing less than love of God. Latent in every one of us, it wants only encouragement before it flares to vibrant life, burning up everything selfish and impure. Once ignited and coaxed with the fuel of love for others, it sheds light and warmth all arou...

Recently I have been thinking that some of my brothers and sisters in my church have intentionally chosen to use the antithesis of Christ's prayer which he said while being beaten and nailed during the Crucifixion-- "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." and His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane- "Not my will but Thy will be done..." Perhaps as we live from the influence of our false selves, we want to say: "Not Thy will, but my will be done." I have mentioned this to my Friday morning breakfast group. They laughed, but I don't really think it is that funny. There has been talk of reconciliation . Some of the folks who like to act as if they are "hurt" in a piosity that is very interesting-- have taken action that seems more like that of retribution. The angry, "I want it my way" demands of this little movement seems way out of character for folks who speak earnestly of reconciliation. It is more li...

"Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein"... or, in the NIV : "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Luke 18:17 Truly, everything about living our lives as followers of Christ, is a function of the grace he gives us through His Spirit, to live in His Kingdom. In addition, I have found great benefit from learning the values of self study and self observation in order to become more and more transformed into His image, from a renowned British Psychiatrist, Dr. Maurice Nicoll . He is the foremost translator of "The Work" of self transformation, as espoused by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky , in the context of the tradition of Christ followership . Following is a sequence of thoughts about self observation that he gave in a talk and was subsequently transcribed, in 1944. --to begin self observation, and self study, it is necessary to d...

(adapted from Fr. Richard Rohr) When Job believes he is about to lose his life, he has a choice. He can respond in one of two ways. He can curse God and die; and I think he considers that option quite seriously for a moment ...(I know I have considered the relief of pain and suffering for myself if I was to die and be done with the humiliations I was suffering!) or he can surrender to the love and the grace that he had become awakened to/aware of and say : "Why fifty years? Why did I deserve anything?" When we take on that attitude, we have made a decision for grace, not "rights" or "entitlement"! "Naked I came into the world, and naked I will leave"(Job 1:21) What do I have brothers and sisters, that has not been given to me? All is grace. All is given. Who gave me the hands I am using to type this or to do anything creative? Who created the eyes whose connectivity, configuration, construction, and 'wiring' I cannot begin to understand?...

Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. - Bhagavad Gita Easwaran tells this story: Once, when the Buddha was told that one of his disciples was having trouble, he went to the young man's room to see what the problem was. This young man had been born in a rich family, and he had been trained in music, so he still kept his vina - an instrument something like a guitar - in the corner of his room. When the Buddha entered, he saw the vina and said, "Let me see if I can play your vina ." The disciple reluctantly brought it forward. He didn't know that the Buddha had been an expert musician. The Buddha tightened the strings of the vina until they were about to break. The disciple protested, "You are not supposed to tighten the strings like that, Blessed One; they will br...

"You are what you believe." -Anton Chekhov You are what the deep faith of your heart is. If you believe that money is going to make you happy, then you will go after money. If you believe that pleasure will make you happy, you will go after pleasure. Because, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," not as he thinketh  in his head.  There is a vast distance from the head to the heart.  In the Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions, they say that whatever  spiritual knowledge you have in your head must be brought down into your heart.  This takes many, many years. ~ Easwaran Do you know this? For such a long time, from the age of say 14 to the age of 48, I placed my true faith in money to give me joy...to cause me to be happy. I am just now spiritually knowing this fact. When I decided on a career, at age 17, I set a goal to become a banker. My heart was focused on that goal. Nothing else took precedence. I was a Christian, sure, because that is what my surround...

A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or a bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there. -Meister Eckhart Below the relatively superficial levels of the mind - beneath the emotions we are ordinarily aware of - lie layer on layer of the unconscious mind. This is the "cloud of unknowing," where primordial instincts, fears, and urges cover our understanding. The deepest flaw in the mind is what Einstein called the "kind of optical delusion of consciousness" that makes us see ourselves as separate from the rest of life. Like a crack in glasses that we must wear every moment of our lives, this division is built into the mind. "I" versus "not-I" runs through everything we see. To see life as it is, the mind must be made pure: every...