Daily Life As Spiritual Exercise Daily Life As Spiritual Exercise Daily life offers us one of two opportunities to grow each day, better or worse. Which way are you growing?
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Articles
How Thinking Distorts Perception
2008-05-07 16:37:00 Man: Do we see things accurately? Emotion biases perception. It magnifies some things and minimizes others. Even if I am in the moment, I believe there is a background of stored or recorded emotion and emotion based conclusions that will influence what I see.Rick: Perception , when we are calm enough to perceive it, is always pure, but most people do not remain calm/centered upon perceiving something. There is all but no gap between perception and taking to thought about what they just observed.Perception is of the moment, but taking to thought is where we abandon the present moment because as we dwell on thought about the moment that just happened we stay in the past and are lost to the next present moment where informative Reality lives.Here, now caught up in the past, we are cut off from new perception and/or intuition that might otherwise have informed us if we had a need to know and had not looked to inferior/flawed mental thought, to the now past for that information. This is w... More About: Thinking
The Intelligence of Natural Medicine
2008-05-01 16:09:00 Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)In my last article I was discussing the natural versus the man-made in the production of food and medicine. In a continuation of that examination here is a clear example of the superiority of the natural versus the man-made I have recently learned. Let's take a look at natural foxglove or digitalis versus man-made Digoxin, a medicine synthesized from the natural.But before I begin let me just warn that no medicine, natural or otherwise, should be taken without the advice of persons knowledgeable about such things. Failure to understand what you are taking, and any interactions with other medicines you already may take, can be deadly. From the website: "http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanyt extbooks/economicbotany/Digitalis/index.h tml"Unlike many medicinal plants, which have a long history of uses, foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) was not an important medicine until the late 18th century. In 1776, William Withering was a physician with a large country pra... More About: Medicine , Intelligence , Natural
The Magic Of Herbs
2008-04-29 20:22:00 I am a week away from finishing up my Herbal Pharmacology class?one of a number of classes I must take if I am to receive the certification in healing arts that I working towards. I knew little about herbs prior to taking this class. What I did know was in the form of negative biased opinion?the result of the various new age nut cases or old hippies I?ve known. They were, for the most part, so off the wall in their thinking and life-styles that I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that what they had to say about herbs were just as off the wall.But no sooner had the class started did I begin to realized the genuine magic that is contained within many growing things that God designed and caused to grow across the face of the earth. And in retrospect that would only make sense. All naturally growing food from the ground is natural medicine. Freshly grown herbs, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes provide us with all that we need to live and grow in natural health and well being... More About: Magic , Herbs
Grasping The Eternal
2008-04-20 16:16:00 When I was a young man I one day attempted to consider a doctrine I was taught in my church. It stated that "God always was, and always will be". It stated that God had no beginning and has no end. In my mind I tried to grasp a hold of this idea, but a weird thing happened...my mind came to a sudden stop with the sensation of electrical wirings overloading and frying...it rather hurt my brain. The only thing missing was the smell of cooked wires.What I learned in those few moments was that this brain of mine, this mind of mine, finite as it is, can not grasp nor comprehend the idea of an eternal God Who always was and always will be. It simply can not contain the concept without running smack into its own limitations...limitations based upon the understanding of its own birth and death. Infinity and eternity simply can not be contained within an intellectual thought process...within a materially created thing itself with a limited life span.But, I would later learn, that their are o... More About: Eternal
Thinking Of You
2008-04-17 14:49:00 Man 1: "The brain thinks. If God did not want the brain to think he would have made it so it could not."Man 2 "The poisonous snake strikes, the black-widow spider bites, the nettles sting, poison ivy makes you itch, the alligator will eat you dead. God makes alot of things, some you would want to be involved with, some you would not."Man 1: "There is no one who has a mind that does not think."Man 2: "Thinking is not the issue. Everyone has thoughts. Where you are in relationship to the thoughts in your head is the issue. Being lost in thought, or being objective to thought is the issue. Being outside your mind looking in is one thing. Being lost in your thoughts is quite another.
A Meditation on Anger
2008-04-16 15:03:00 Recognising something to be right or wrong because you can see it is right or wrong is something independent of intellectual agreement or disagreement with an idea.Beliefs can be dangerous in that if we believe but do not yet also see, we are caught up in the mind and the thinking, which keeps us hynotically involved with thought and separated from understanding which lives outside the mind.I can only truly agree that anger is wrong when I "see" its actual distructive affect in me and on others, and I find myself no longer in agreement with it. This "seeing" can lead to repentance, to being sorry for acting out on my anger...that is if I do not get angry with the "seeing" of my anger.Until I "see" and by seeing come to "understand" angers actual negative effects, until I see the real damage that it does, the real hurt that it causes, it is only an abstract belief that does me no good whether I believe or disbelieve that anger is wrong. Belief alone can not change behavior...not a ge... More About: Meditation , Anger
Drive-by Criticizers
2008-04-14 16:39:00 Did you ever notice that some people just love to criticize. Now don't get me wrong, it is important to point out fault in another, at the right time and in a right way. This is a part of love. You wouldn't not tell your friend going to a job interview that his fly was open and that his breath stunk, would you? A part of being a loving friend is to tell the truth that others may not want to hear, but need to hear. A real friend will thank you for it.But criticism can come in two ways. One, as mentioned above, can come from love. The other, can come from the need to knock a person down. I call this drive-by criticism. This kind of criticism has no love in it. It is not designed to help you in anyway, but rather has a need to hurt or put down so that the criticizer can feel superior. There is no real concern for the others welfare in this case. When pressed, the criticizer shows no interest in helping you understand the criticism.But, either way, if you remain calm and detached, you... More About: Drive
Judging Others...or Calling The Kettle Black
2008-04-10 19:12:00 Today I watched a little situation in a parking lot. Three cars doing their thing converged into a momentary meeting. One car was backing out from a parking space, another was attempting to leave the small crowed parking lot, and the third was coming into the parking lot from the street. All were obliged to stop in their tracks as each would have run into the other if they had continued, which brought up the issue of who would go first to untangle the little log jam.Each person, whose face I could see, were both perplexed and frustrated by this unexpected encumbrance. Finally, one gentleman decided that if he got himself out of the way he would solve the problem, but in order to do that he had to back up very close to the car that was coming in from the street. That in turn scared the female driver of that car, and she in turn tried to drive around the front of the man backing up almost hitting the car waiting to leave causing it to have to back up. Finally, they all did a little sh... More About: Black , Calling , Judging
The Laying On Of Hands
2008-04-09 17:19:00 I am taking some classes for a Wellness program I have enrolled in. Part of that program required me to take Reiki, a Japanese healing technique that uses the laying on of hands, over the body, to impart healing to the person receiving it. As I also said before, I know that there is power in touch, the laying on of hands, if God is behind it. Jesus did it all the time. But I have seen no evidence that this gift can be acquired through the taking of some class, by just anyone. Therefore I consider this class a "hoop" that I must jump through to get me to the finish line of this program.Tuesday night I and two other students were in a live Reiki Clinic for hands on experience...pardon the pun. We were assigned to an experienced "healer" and helped with the treatment of "patients". The room was darkened and soft zen-ish music played quietly in the room. There were eight beds, eight "healers" and the three of us students. At 7:30 the first group of "patients" arrived for their hour lon... More About: Hands
Video: Understanding Culture
2008-04-07 19:28:00 Rick speaks on the nature of culture More About: Video , Culture , Understanding
Video: "Grace - A Point of Departure"
2008-04-06 00:57:00 Rick speaks on the nature of Grace More About: Video , Point , Departure
Singing in the Rain
2008-04-05 04:50:00 One day I was talking to a very enlightened friend who always taught that whatever we hate gets inside us...that whatever we hate becomes apart of us, and begins to grow up in the place where love, peace, joy, patience, tolerance and acceptance of ?what is? would otherwise grow. Just then my friend's granddaughter came inside from a very warm, beautiful and bright spring day and said ?I hate days like this!? My friend said to her ?You can?t hate the weather?you?ll become like it!? as he looked my way with a knowing smile. I added ?Yeah, and if you hate this weather you might get into a tropical depression?. We all had a good laugh but there was a serious truth under the jest.My aunt came in from the misty rain here on Cape Ann this morning. She exclaimed ?OH MY GOD!!!...Its Sooooooo damp out there!? I could tell she was really disturbed by with the current weather situation. I said ?I hadn?t noticed, but it is nearly springtime and the rain is good for the growing things that will ... More About: Rain , Singing
No Thought - No Mind - No Self
2008-04-01 13:13:00 Man: "Since there is no thought and no mind and no self, what is it that needs God?"That is not exactly the right question.The right question is what remains if there is no thought, no mind and no self?The "Watcher" of thought, mind and self is what remains, and it is already one with Gods Light. It has no need because it already has all that it needs.This is the state Jesus referred to when He said He and His Father were one, and it is the state Adam fell from, a oneness we must return to.The watcher of thought, mind and self is one with the Light, for by It it sees.All identitification with thought, mind or self is what comprises and holds together the ego, a separate but illusuary self that believes itself something apart from God but is really nothing, the no-self.When the ego is watched, it dissolves into the nothingness it really is.The only place in creation where God is not is hell. And the mind that sees itself as a self separate from God lives in its own hell.This is the e... More About: Mind , Thought
Going Out Of My Mind
2008-03-30 15:38:00 As I walked the beach that day last year I had a sudden remembrance of being 8 months old, standing by the rail of my crib and looking out into the world for the first time and wondering about it all.It was a warm spring or early summer day, the windows were open, the sheer curtains blowing in a warm, gentle breeze, the sun was shining brightly and the birds were singing. I was alone in the room. I wondered what is this place? who am I? and what is that wierd stain on the linoleum floor? But, and this is a BIG but, I wondered all these things without a single word in my head.I had no voice thoughts because I had yet to learn any words. No words, no concepts, not a single voice thought in my head, but I did have wonderment and realization. I realized I existed and I wondered about it. I was pure consciousness, pure awareness. That is who I was at that moment and nothing more. My culture had yet to implant an identity into me but I would eventually fall from that state of pure awarene... More About: Mind
Blessing the Enemy and The Joy of Being
2008-03-30 00:06:00 As I was walking through the produce section of my local supermarket today, I suddenly realized that I had been caught up in thought and came back to the present moment. I have done this thousands of times, being lost in thought and coming to the present moment, but somehow this time was new, and as if for the first time.I suddenly became vividly conscious of where I was, what I was doing and aware of everything around me; aisles of bright and beautiful produce and fruit, the aroma of fresh baked bread, others busily shopping, the assortment of noises, voices, wheeling carts. It was all so clean, bright and beautiful and I had a knowing that everything was exactly as it should be. I was overtaken by a deep feeling of joy, and I burst out in a laugh right there and then. I couldn't contain it.The other day I was working with someone I occasionally have to work with. Now this semi-retired older guy is the kind of guy who loves to talk about his medical issues; operations he has had, ... More About: Enemy , Blessing , The Enemy
Every Prisoner Was Once A Child
2008-03-22 17:06:00 There are billions of emotionally and psychologically troubled people in this world, but they all began as little children, and little children are very rarely born with emotional or psychological problems.Child ren, for the most part, are born with a blank slate. Being raised with the rare and true quality of love, which embodies patience, understanding and kindness, gives children a real fighting chance to off-set the tremendous pressure to conform to the craziness imposed by the world outside the home.But if the parents are as mad as the outside world, what chance does a child have?Some children are weak in constitution and will simply conform. Most die that way, except for a few lucky ones. The brighter souls rebel at the imposition though they almost always fail to be creative in the rebellion, and so end up just as crazy, mad, impatient and violent as the object of the rebellion in spite of not wanting to be. The jails and mental institutions are filled with these, though most ...
Are You Out Of Your Mind?
2008-03-20 17:34:00 In the movie "The Peaceful Warrior" there is a scene where young Dan Millman is suddenly tossed into a small river. He comes flying out of the water, mad as a hatter, and angrily demanded of Socrates "Are you out of your mind!!??" Paraphrased, Socrates says "Yes, I am out of my mind and it has taken me a lifetime to get there, and it is where I am trying to get you." And then he added "When I tossed you into the river, in that moment, you were fully present in the here and now, and out of your mind"The scene points out the fundamental problem with mankind and suggests that all of our problems stem from one thing; being stuck in our heads, in our minds and therefore not fully available to participate in the here and now.An objective look at the average human being clearly shows that they are caught up in the in the mental dialogue in their head, and therefore not available to be completely aware of the present moment. Today, at the wholesale club I joined, I watched the young lady be... More About: Mind
The Aware Watcher
2008-03-09 15:37:00 Awareness and God are not two separate things.Awareness/consciousness is our true identity, it is our birthright. When we are born all we have is awareness/consciousness, no other identity are we born with. It is the essence behind the eyes of the littlest children who look out into the world for the first time and ponders its existence. It is what ponders without words or concepts having learned none yet. The Watcher is pure and virginal awareness/consciousness. But immediately the world conspires to kill/suppress this "Self", and works very hard to implant its own culturally induced sense of "self". Under assault we soon forget that we are the Watcher, and begin to identify with a worldly implanted sense of "self".It is this "ego self" we come to think of as who we are, and are in conflict with.It is this externally implanted false self that we will defend to the death rather than see through it. But see through it we must if we are to lay down the ego life to find the spiritual s... More About: Aware
New Wine and Old Wineskins
2008-03-08 01:14:00 ?No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.?The above parable speaks to the fact that some things do not mix. The unshrunken cloth used to patch a hole in an old cloak will eventually shrink and make a bigger hole than was there before it was applied. The new wine skins, animal skins formed to make a leather container for wine, are pliable and soft, and will expand with the gases released in the fermentation of the new wine. Together they will accommodate each other, but new wine put into an old skin, already stretched and aged, will burst as the wine gases expand, causing the loss of both.The principle of incompatibility is the lesson of the parable but it speaks not only to the laws of physics, but also to the law of metaphysics. It speaks of the incompatibility of the spirit... More About: Wine
The Key That Unlocks Peace and Happiness
2008-03-03 19:46:00 Krishnamurti, the Indian spiritual leader, getting along in years, once asked "Do you want to know my secret?". He answered his surprised audience "I do not mind what happens". How many understand this statement? It contains within it the beginning and end of all emotional suffering.That ability to accept "what is"...to accept whatever the current reality in ones life is...without resistance to it, is the pathway to peace and happiness that all the great spiritual leaders over the ages have pointed to. The bible says it this way; "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds"I know a lady whose "lover" died before the relationship was consummated. He died several years ago, but the pain and agony of a "lost love" continues to consume the woman all these years later, robbing her of peace and happiness. Resistance to the facts...failure to accept his death and let him go and failure to make peace with the reality of the situation, are kee... More About: Peace , Happiness
People Who Need People Are Miserable People
2008-02-22 15:55:00 In the book "Path to No Self" Bernadette Roberts tells how she was taught by her parents to avoid the misery that comes from "needing people". When I read that book over 25 years ago I was struck by the comment but would have to go through a number of painful relationships to come to understand the meaning of "not needing people" in the sense Roberts meant it.It seems to me that almost everyone I have observed in life are brought up in such a way as to have a hole in the soul, so to speak, and taught to looked outside ourselves to fill it. And although it is most common to primarily look to another human being to fill the inner void, it is not only to another that we look. It can be to almost anything really; our jobs, our recreation, our pets...anything and everything can be used fill the hole of unhappiness we experience without it. But mainly, it is to another that we look for "fulfilling love". The problem with looking outside ourselves for fulfillment is that nothing in the ma... More About: People
Are You Living Your Own Life?
2008-02-16 00:31:00 Many people live their entire lives believing they are living their own lives when they are not. They act out an idea of who and what they are, but it is only an idea...a suggestion, if you will. They are other than what they were created to be. Perhaps they are a doctor or a lawyer because they were "indoctrinated" to be so starting as a little child with the "suggestion" reinforced at every turn. The variations are endless. But the truth is that they live out anothers will for them and never really have a choice in the matter. They do not live their own self-realized, self-directed lives, but rather live out anothers idea of how they should live. That is the very definition of hypnotic suggestion...acting out the will of another. These are lost, and perhaps hoplelessly lost, at least that is, until they find the truth that makes them free. More About: Life , Living
The Insecurity of Wrong Doers
2008-02-10 03:57:00 The sign in the sauna, steam room and shower area of my health club says that per order of the board of health shaving in any of these places is prohibited. I suspect that with HIV and other blood borne diseases the fear of a nick and bleeding is the reason behind such an order.I was alone in the stream room when a man came in. After a short while he held up a razor and asked "Do you mind if I shave?". I said the rules prohibit it. He said "I know but if you don't want me too I won't". I said I had nothing to do with it, it was prohibited by the club. He said "OK, then I won't"There is no doubt that if I wasn't there he would have simply shaved whatever he intended to shave :-) But this little episode points to the fact that wrong people need the approval of other wrong people to do wrong. If I gave the OK he would have been happy to break the safety rules and shaved, but because he looked to me to help him do wrong and did not get it he was disabled from doing it. More About: Wrong
How To Overcome Evil With Good
2008-02-08 01:47:00 I loved the old King Fu TV show. In one episode Master Po said to Kwai Chang Caine "When a man comes at you with a stick there are three ways to deal with him. Run, fight him or take his stick away". The third option is fully understood by few but points to a most powerful force...the force of non-resistance to evil.Jesus spoke of this power when He said "do not resist evil, overcome it with good". But just what exactly does this mean? Is this to mean that we should submit to evil...allow it to have its way with us? No, this is not what is meant by "resist not evil". What this is talking about is keeping emotional reactions to wickedness out of the picture. Why? Because evil, which can not stand on its own, having no power in and of itself, requires the emotional reaction of the victim to complete its purpose.Humanly speaking what is at one moment strong before the weak will be weak before a stronger force. A bully needs the coward to be a bully. Deny the perpetrator the emotional r... More About: Evil , Good , Overcome
Where Is The Common Sense?
2008-02-05 05:02:00 As we spoke she kept clearing her throat. Finally she apologized saying that recently she has been experiencing dryness. I asked if she was drinking plenty of water wondering if she might be dehydrated. She said she was. In fact, she said, she was a big water drinker, even having water by her bedside and taking sips through out the night. She said it was the ?damn pills? that were making her dry and added that she just told her husband she wasn?t going to take them anymore. I asked what the pills were for. She said they were prescribed for an over active bladder, a polite way of saying that she urinated a lot at night. Can you see where this is going?In one second I diagnosed her problem. It is common sense that if you put water in, water must come out. I told her to stop drinking water at night and she wouldn?t go the bathroom so much. She seemed pleasantly surprised to hear this. Why couldn?t the trained doctor figure this out? Throwing pills at problems without trying to understa... More About: Sense , Common , Common Sense
Seeing With New Eyes
2008-02-01 15:47:00 A friend once told me that ?salvation? is a matter of discovering and employing the right combination of principles. I think that is right on. One of the principles I want to discuss is the principle of ?forgiveness?. It has been said that forgiveness is a reciprocal action, that is, God forgives us only as we forgive others. That sounds like a real principle to me and if we are interested in ?salvation? we should have some idea of what forgiveness is and is not. There is a forgiving of self that must be understood properly but today I am concerned with the forgiving of others.Letting people do wrong and not holding them accountable is not forgiveness. That is enabling. But the ability to hold another accountable without anger or resentment is a good example of forgiveness. The ability to see another, at each meeting, with new eyes, with fresh eyes free of yesterdays remembrance of wrong done, is getting very close to the goal of forgiving others.Resentment, which means ?to feel aga... More About: Eyes
Is Culture A Curse?
2008-01-29 14:41:00 Soon after we are born there comes a time when we first realize that we exist. Many of us have forgotten this seminal moment but it happened nonetheless. In that moment we were pure ?watcher?. We looked out from behind our eyes into a strange world we suddenly found ourselves in and ?wondered? about it all. We wondered who we were, wondered where we were and wondered what it all meant. We, at that moment were pure, unadulterated consciousness. Our culture had yet to teach us words, concepts or beliefs about anything. We were the ultimate ?watcher? and natural born ?wonderer?.If we were raised in the perfect environment, one in which we were not pressured from the outside in anyway to have our being, we would have unfolded completely from the inside. We would ?watch? and learn from the inside, growing by intuitive understanding to be exactly what we were created to be.But alas, we do not come into a perfect world, we come into a world that immediately begins to pressure us to conform... More About: Culture , Curse
Why New Years Resolutions Fail
2008-01-25 16:04:00 The gym is less crowded now. It's amazing how packed it got just after the new year when all the couch potatoes made their resolutions to get fit and into shape. The place was teeming with folks with their new work-out clothes, water bottles and good intentions, but alas, most are nowhere to be seen after a few short weeks.Why is it that resolutions always seem to fail? Why do good intentions fall by the wayside? The man reason is that most people make decisions based upon emotion or emotional reaction, and we all know how fickle and changeable emotions can be. Perhaps they looked in the mirror and hated what they saw. Perhaps a little kid made an innocent comment, like the 3 year old in the hot tub with his dad yesterday. When a very fat lady showed up to take a dip he couldn't take his eyes off her, shocked as he was by her large size in such a small bathing suit. The young man was so appalled by what he saw that he insisted, ordered, out loud, that his dad look away to the righ... More About: Years , New Years , Resolutions
The Fine Line Between Meditation and Hypnosis
2008-01-23 16:37:00 There is a fine line between hypnosis and meditation. While meditation is intended to lead us to full awareness of the present moment where Reality lives...hypnosis does just the opposite. It puts us asleep to the present moment. Allow me to illustrate the point.Let us imagine a prisoner in solitary confinement. There is a small concrete room devoid of anything at all except a built in iron bed and a small barred window through which sunlight pours into the cell. The prisoner sits on the floor and looks at the ray of sunlight in front of him. Within the sun ray he sees a speck of dust floating lazily up and down on the heat waves of the sunlight, almost as if defying gravity.At this point the prisoner can do one of two things. He can quietly observe the floating piece of dust as just another part of his momentary experience in his prison cell, within the cell block, within the prison or...he can fixate on the piece of dust unto forgetfulness of his surroundings. One way he remains i... More About: Meditation , Hypnosis , Line , Fine
Beyond Thinking - The Power of Wonder
More articles from this author:2008-01-21 17:15:00 All voice-thoughts should be disregarded as teachers and guides to be followed. Beyond the voice-thoughts, there are other things that can go on in a mind. There is a wordless world within and "wondering" is an example of a word-less thing.I know that when questions arise in my mind...whenever I wonder about or question something I just heard or observed...it is a wordless thing. It is the same kind of experience I first had as that 8 month old baby standing in his crib looking out into the world for the first time, wondering about it all, but without a single word in his head (I didn't know any yet), pondering his existence and this place he found himself in for the first time.Wondering or pondering asks wordlessly, and does not lose itself in intellectual exercise to find the answer. It does not lose itself in analysis, mental debate or any other brute intellectual exercise to come up with the answer. The wondering mind knows that it does not know and does not mind not knowing. I... More About: Power , Thinking 1, 2 |
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