In Yoke

We live in what Kabir Helminski calls “an electromagnetic sea”. In his book, “Living Presence”, he introduces the concept that our bodies are actually ultra-sensitive receptors for the magnetic frequency waves all around us. It is what we experience in our daily lives. Our lives are affected by the level frequency at which we operate. These frequencies, like radio waves, pulsate around us, in “hertz”. The SI unit hertz (Hz) was established in Heinrich Hertz’ honor by the IEC in 1930 for the basic unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts. “Hertz”(Hz) can be used to measure any periodic event; the most common uses for hertz are to describe radio and audio frequencies, more or less sinusoidal contexts in which case a frequency of 1 Hz is equal to one cycle per second.(Wikipedia-Heinrich Hertz) Consequently, our earth rotates and operates at a frequency of between 8-10Hz. This level of frequency i...

Random notes on this thing known as 'faith'. "To 'faith' is to hand over the direction of one's life journey to another, to yield up the' illusion of control' to someone who is essentially beyond one's control, over whom we have no power." Faith is a verb, a process, and not a static reality. In our faith journey, there are several similar or common elements: (1) conversion: also known as metanoia --change of mind or life/direction; (2) a struggle to internalize and act on that conversion experience; (3) a call to integrity; (4) a call to reality; (5) a call to radicality . These elements emerge regardless of era, culture, theology, life-style, or ministry. Faith is primarily a relationship. Any love relationship challenges us to greater honesty and transparency, to awareness of those areas of our lives where we hold back or refuse to face ourselves, or to let others see us as we truly are. To really love others means to become progressively ...

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to us. -Leon Trotsky When the first grey hair appears on our head, it is a critical juncture in life. We go to the mirror with a sinking feeling of dread and try to pluck out the evidence - one here, two there. But the more we pull out, the more seem to come in. I tease my friends by asking which of them would like to relive their adolescence. It always brings a groan. Youth has a lot to offer, but so does the experience of age. In India, there is a joke about a man going to a barber and asking, "Do you have anything for grey hair?" "Yes," the barber says, "respect." Just because we don't have wrinkles or a grey hair, we are not necessarily alive in the fullest sense of the word. Real living comes from making a contribution to life. This is the paradox of life: when we cling to the body, it loses its beauty. But when we do not cling to the body - and use it as an instrument given us t...

"And what rule do you think I walked by? Truly a strange one, but the best in the whole world. I was guided by an implicit faith in God's goodness; and therefore led to the study of the most obvious and common things. For thus I thought within myself: God being, as generally believed, infinite in goodness, it is most consonant and agreeable with His nature that the best things should be most common." -Thomas Traherne A state of permanent joy, hidden at the very center of consciousness, is the Eden to which the long journey of spiritual seeking leads. There, the mystics of all religions agree, we uncover our original goodness. We don't have to buy it; we don't have to create it; we don't have to pour it in; we don't even have to be worthy of it. This native goodness is the essential core of human nature. We are made, the scriptures of all religions assure us, in the image of God. Nothing can change our original goodness. Whatever mistakes ...

"The realm of freedom is a prerequisite of virtue, just as it is of sin. It is God's great risk. The freedom to fall is also the freedom to rise. It is precisely in our failure, our experience of poverty. weakness, emptiness that we can come to experience God's restoration and healing love. You can say--oh, that's dangerous, it sounds as if you are justifying sin. But I am trying to be the ultimate realist. Salvation is sin overturned and outdone, as God expands and educates our true freedom. Free will and freedom of conscience are at the heart of the doctrine of grace and at the center of Christian morality. ~ Fr. Richard Rohr It seems to me that as a 21st century follower who is seeking to be "in yoke" with Christ, one of the basic principles of living, moving and having my being in Christ that is hardest to grasp and live with daily is the concept/doctrine of grace. For me it is easier to conceive traditional Puritan influenced legalism and c...

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. -William Cowper We often think that if we go after what we want, we will probably get it; then we will be happy and secure. The mass media have latched onto this line of thinking and intone it like a litany: grab, grab, grab! Yet sooner or later the whole smorgasbord of things begins to lose its luster. Then the sensitive person asks, "If I go on grabbing and grabbing, at what point do I become secure and feel no more need to grab?" This question can lead to some far-reaching changes in our lives. Our needs are much too big to be satisfied with things, no matter how many we can manage to acquire. The more we try to get, the more acutely we feel those bigger, undeniable needs. Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with loving and being loved, with knowing we are of genuine use to others. The more we give of ourselves to others,...

Well, it is time to confess. I hit bottom last week. Melted down. I acted out in anger and frustration with my wife and her dog. Leslie was complaining it seemed to me. About how unresponsive I was. She was trying to get me to open up and share what I was "feeling". I am an Enneagram 3, and as such, have difficulty finding my feelings. I am naturally detached. Compartmentalization comes quite naturally to me. In doing so, she verbally coerced, pushed, and coaxed, pushed, and then.... well, my small self gets threatened...I was not in a very good mood. I was tired, and frustrated, and a bit worried about ...finances, the business, the fact that Les wanted me to open up, and I did not want to. I wanted to be left alone, and neither she nor the dog would leave me alone. Les wanted me to let her in on what I was feeling. The dog wanted to play and rough house. I wanted neither. Leslie was talking to me, and I was responding, quietly and calmly, when the dog kept barking, barkin...