I Have Eyes Only for “GOOD”
May 20, 2010
Life is a decision. It has taken me many years to arrive at this awareness.
What I focus on grows in my awareness. We have all experienced focusing on a new car. The first thing you know you see this car everywhere.
Does that mean that car started to appear more often?
Or, does it mean I am now tuned into this car so I notice the occasions when it comes into my field of awareness?
I venture to guess that the latter is the answer.
My insight for today is very simple. What I have eyes for grows in interest to me and consequently I will notice it more often.
I notice that the news media, for example tends to focus on the tragic or traumatic. I was recently involved in the evacuation of a large number of elderly people from a seniors home that caught fire. Fortunately all turned out well and the fire was quickly contained by the good work of very efficient firemen. No one was hurt in the incident. One person suffered a little bit of smoke inhalation. Of all the pictures the media could have focused on, let’s say, of staff, paramedics, firemen and women helping frail elderly people out of the building without a single injury… they took the picture of the one slight casualty receiving oxygen. That, in the mind of the media was a clear attempt to sensationalize.
Why? I thought to myself, did they not focus on all the ‘good’ that was going on?
Of course we are all familiar with the tendency of the media to focus on what they think the public sees as sensational.
Before I go any further on that tangent I want to bring our attention back to focus. What we focus on GROWS in our awareness.
The media could have decided to focus on the great job of evacuation and the happy story around that couldn’t they have?
Anyway, what we focus on takes us in a certain direction is my point. That focus is a decision.
Taking this back to my life, if I choose to focus on all the hurt and problems of my life, what will the outcome of that be?
I hazard a guess that the outcome will be more and more of the same and I will eventually get sarcastic and depressed and all the rest and I will likely get very ill, mentally, emotionally and perhaps even physically.
So, my insight for today is very simple. FOCUS OF THE GOOD all day, as much as I can, just for today.
In this way I can build a ‘mental equivalent’ of seeing good in my mind and imagination.
This is a choice on my part. I make a decision to ‘focus’ on good. That does not mean I’m not aware of the not so good but I am disciplining myself to have eyes only for “Good”.
It, I believe, will build my muscle and my skill set to focus on what is right in life instead, of as the media is wont to do, namely to focus on all the problems.
It may sound like a simple solution but I think that life is indeed pretty simple.
It reminds me of another verse I know: whatever is lovely or praiseworthy, think of such things and the peace that passes all understanding will be yours.”
So, just for today, i choose to have eyes only for the “Good’.
Who We are Defines What We Think
May 2, 2010
Often we hear it said that ‘what we think’ defines who we are. But we have to ask the question; who is doing the thinking?
If I don’t know who I am I will tend to be filled with fear, doubt and confusion don’t you think?
Who I am is so very important. I am meant to have a sense of ‘who’ I am.
I know, that growing up, I asked that question a lot. I tended to feel isolated, alone and lonely. I don’t know exactly what caused that, but that is how I felt a lot of the time.
In fact that sense of being alone grew so strong that it caused me to really ask; who am I? and What is this life all about?
I dropped into a pit of despair as a result.
Then one day it grew so dark that I would have taken my life were it not that I was so despairing that I was totally lethargic.
I would rather have rotted than make the effort it took to take my own life.
Any way, in that pit it came to me to take a chance and call upon God, if there was such a thing.
I cried in all sincerity to this unknown supreme being in my imagination and lo and behold some message got through to me that indeed I was loved and all is well.
I heard in the depth of my soul that God is and that everything, somehow is under control.
If you had asked me, before that experience, what I thought. You would have gotten very random and crazy unconnected thoughts.
I had no BASIS for my thought except my very limited sense of my self and what I could figure out on my own.
God was out there and I was separated from any experiential sense of that God. I was on my own and afraid and confused and so my thinking was all over the place.
I assumed I was alone and had only limited resources to help me.
All of a sudden, with the new found certainty that God is, that came to me I had a new basis for thinking.
I gradually changed my assumption. Instead of seeing myself alone I began to be aware that I am always living, moving and having my being in this reality called God.
So my thinking changed dramatically more and more over the years as I reflected on my new assumption of being One with God instead of being alone and separated from God and people.
Assuming oneness with God has become a greater and greater assumption. So, starting from that belief, my thinking is continually changing to reflect my assumption that I am One with God.
It was Neville who said that “what we assume will harden into fact.”
In my early days my aching heart lead to a confused mind and my thinking was crazy.
As I grow deeper into my assumption of Unity with God I find my thinking becoming more and more expansive, systematic and orderly because I have a basis for thinking.
As I assume God qualities instead of fear filled victim qualities my thinking is getting more and more focused and defined by who I believe myself to be.
So my assumption is leading me to ideas of Truth, Goodness and Beauty and hence to a greater and greater sense of Harmony. This, all because my sense of who I am is defining my thinking.
And of course, my thinking is defining with ever more depth and clarity my sense of who I am.
So I conclude that the first and most important thing for me and my starting point is not my ‘thinking’ as such.
It is my sense of who I Am.
There you go. I share with you my thinking for today.
Peace and joy
Norm
I Am Not Bound by Any Mistake
April 19, 2010
I desire to share with you a reflection I read by Ernest Holmes on the fact that we are not ‘bound’ by any mistake from our past. Freedom is for the taking.
“Let us now let go of everything and enter into the consciousness of that which we believe. The Spirit within each one of us is God, and it is perfect.
It is love, reason, life, truth and beauty.
It is limitless and perfect and complete and whole.
It knows no lack and not limitation.
There is nothing we have done, said or thought which rises up against us, which has power over us or which limits us; there is no memory of fear, no condemnation for previous mistakes. With the desire to free ourselves from the further indulgence in the mistake, the effect of the previous mistake is wiped out, just as light dissipates the darkness.
The Universe holds nothing against us; It can hold nothing against us, because It can know nothing unlike Itself.
Therefore, It only knows us as Perfection.
There has never been an occurrence for which we have to suffer!
Consequently, every apparent shortcoming, which could be traced to some mental or spiritual infringement of the law, is not only removed but the effect is healed.
That means there is no history to our case. All of its history is this minute wiped out in the knowledge that today the perfect Law, the Law of Freedom, is the only Law there is in our experience. We enter into that freedom with joy, free from every sense of sadness and burden.
We enter into it with laughter, with lightness.
It is something, which lifts us above the heaviness of morbidity and lack and limitation, into that rarer atmosphere where our opinions do not collide. We enter into it with peace, free from fear.
We know that infinite Wholeness is in us and through us and around us now, and we are conscious that we are renewed this moment, instantly and perfectly, after the image of Perfection.
We are today guided into right action in every exercise of our affairs.
Since there is no great and no small to the Infinite, all that seems of little consequence in our lives has the Divine Guidance just as perfectly and completely as that which we think of as being tremendously important.
We are guided into the knowledge of happiness, of certainty, of wholeness and of freedom; and we know that there is that subtle Essence of the Spirit, which emanates from us at all time, healing everything It contacts.”
I Am Not Bound by Any Mistake
In scripture it is stated that ‘for freedom we have been set free…use your freedom for good.’
I believe we are indeed, guided by a loving intelligence that seeks only our good.
I trust you are having a good day.
Peace
Norm
How the Mind works is a Law?
April 11, 2010
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Today I choose to look at the mind and how it works.
I also choose to see that the mind in action is a kind of “LAW”.
Think about it for a minute. This reflection is one piece in cleaning up your thinking. The result of that is the cleaning up of your life to be what YOU desire it to be rather that always having to accept things as they come to you.
Keeping it very simple, lets think about this ‘law of mind’. Stop and think about your own thought processes.
Isn’t it amazing that so many kinds of thoughts, ideas and impressions and judgments and conclusions be happening all at once. Isn’t the mind a wonderful thing?
I can be talking to someone and I can be thinking about how they look, how I feel about how they look. I can at the same time think about the phone call I am to make in a minute. I can notice the leaves in the tree behind the person. I can be wondering what to say or how to respond. I can hear the voice of my mother from the past telling me to be careful, “this may not be a trustworthy person to talk with.”
I’m sure if you pay attention for a moment you get a picture of your mind in every day thinking processes.
The thing to do now is to consider this mind and compare it to a “mirror”.
Look into the mirror and notice how a definite thought, a mental statement or image, an affirmation or a denial all have an impact on the way you are going to act or the beliefs you are going to create. These will all become a system that guides your life and your actions.
Well maybe this is easy to see, maybe not. Some of us are not accustomed to stop long enough to ponder such things. But, just try and do it today. Take a look.
Every impression that you make in your mind has some sort of impact and some of them are strong enough that they become the basis of your ‘action’.
Anyway, the point I want to make here is just stick with that picture of your mind and how varied and insightful and harmonious and chaotic it can be. It’s like whoa this is quite a picture.
A little bit all over the place isn’t it?
Now, consider the mirror analogy and take a snapshot of what you see in the mirror.
Ok. Got it. Now look at your life in general. Is there a similarity?
So you can see how you think is reflected in your actual life.
On this basis we see how the Law of Mind in action is a law.
What goes on up here in the mind tends to produce similar results in the life and so this is the law of the mind. Your using it all the time and it is having an impact on the conditions of your life.
So this law, like the law of gravity is at play. Look at your mind in the mirror again and see how it resembles the conditions of your life.
So all the pictures your hold and respond to in your mind will affect your life somehow.
All the beliefs you hold either limit or enhance your life. Can you see it?
I’m just beginning to see and to understand how this stuff works and I feel excited ant the unlimited possibilities a concept like I’ve just described is offering.
I conclude then that the Law of Mind is always operating.
It is a question of becoming aware and conscious of it.
It is an invitation to realize this truth and then to ‘use’ it to create what you desire instead of just taking what happens to you.
Isn’t that often the way we live our lives? We hope and pray something will come our way but we forget that what the mind is like is the thing that determines what we get.
So today I’m reflecting on this and I’m thrilled at the principle I’m writing about.
This business of noticing what is going on in our mind and then making a decision to clean up our thinking and making it such that we have in the mirror a mind that is orderly and clear and precise, is, I agree somewhat of a challenge. The gauntlet is placed before us.
What is interesting to me in this is that I notice I have much more choice and power than I ever dreamed. I am in control of what is happening in my life. Gee whiz can I accept that?
Big question.
Do I take the responsibility to clean up my mind, to be aware of its action because, for sure it is affecting my life? Do I take my ‘responsibility as the image-maker to create only the images that correspond to the good I desire for others and myself?
Of course I’m aware this may be easier said than done and that this is just one tiny piece of a great puzzle and I propose to keep talking about in the days to come to bring to light the many more angles in this matter of the ‘law of Mind in Action.’
Peace
Joy and right action guide us.
Norm
Deep Speaks to Deep
March 30, 2010
In the Christian tradition this is Holy-Week. This is the week where the forces of darkness cluster around the Light to snuff it out.
Jesus said: “I know where I come from and I know where I am going”. “I and the Father are one”. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father”
Don’t let the word Father turn you off. Just change it to Source or to the best image you can come up with of someone who truly desires only Good for you.
Imagine it if you have to and forgive all the hurt that anyone has done to you in the name of father or any kind of authority. Just imagine for a minute that there is actually a power greater than you that is truly out to help and support and evolve you.
The point is, Jesus understood His Unity with this benevolent source. He was able to continue to say that even when the darkness got so thick that He cried out: My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” At that moment the lights went out in the Universe and all was quiet. There was the feeling of a strange and eerie emptiness.
This Jesus figure, that represents light, that did never loose sight of the fact that He was Light… let go…
Into the dark… There took place a wonderful conversation beyond words with all that was unresolved and unnamed in the universe.
All those who lived and died not fully understanding what it’s all about were mystically addressed during that time when the One who understood His connection with Light seemed to be snuffed out… engulfed by the dark.
That mystical conversation was the shifting point. In such a perfect identification with darkness or weakness… the Christ was bringing to an end a certain way of being. That being had been based on an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. It was based on ‘fighting to survive’. But here was an example of someone who identified completely with the light and so was able to rest completely in the dark with peace and serenity and that spoke to the dark and broke its power on the mind and imagination of humanity.
It taught that victory comes not in fighting back and being brave and getting our just due.
The mystical conversation simply said; Know where you come from, Identify completely with it to the point where you can surrender to the apparent dark and you will see and experience that dark and, so called death, have not power to hold you.
In apparent weakness we are made strong but the source of that strength is the initial awareness and identification with the Source of all being.
Remember Jesus’ saying that He knew where He came from and where He was going.
That is the key.
That identification enabled Him to have the mystical dialogue with the dark and death and prove that in the serenity of faith in a power greater than ourselves all is well.
A shift was made in the dark and a new day dawned. A new direction was given. This was now a day where love prevailed and a refusal to identify with pain, sorrow and separation and feeling like we are alone to fight insurmountable forces.
Know where you come from. Rehearse it if you have to and then rest and relax in an ever growing consciousness that you are not separated but you are One. The Source never left. It is We who leave in our minds and feelings.
The Source waits for us to come to understand that we need no longer to be victims to thinking we are alone and separated from love, light and life.
I am One with Life… to believe that, is our assignment for the day, even when the darkness comes and we may be tempted to believe :”my god my god why have you forsaken me?”
In the affirmation of Light in the darkness is where the SHIFT takes place and a new beginning, a new springtime of causation brings about a more desired effect.
Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord. Identification with Light and Spirit is the 1st step.
I open a page of my journal and my daily reflection. I choose to share with you.
Peace, namaste.
Norm
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