Since the past few months have been a personal incubator for anxiety, it is of interest to note what little soft, fury Ah HAs have pecked their way to freedom from their prior prison of habitual thoughts.

My preference is to DO.

I’m equipped for that battle with my skills, brains and helpmate. When she and I identify a challenge before us, we simply begin to adjust to the handling of that change. We re-integrate the new direction back in to some routine, predictable pattern.

On a smaller scale, when I identify a task to do at work or at home, I can then “get to work” doing it because “I already know how” or because “I have successfully done it before.” This can be a task that takes me seconds or a task that takes me hours.

The key attribute of my DOING is that I am focused on productivity – on “getting it done” — as efficiently and effectively as possible. When I am focused-attention on productive DOing, I am seldom also aware of BEing.

Guidance from Spirit is available in the awareness of BEing. The “still small voice” that asks “What’s next?” or “Where to from here?” is drowned out by the Din of Doing. The ability to follow God’s Will (The Tao) – to “work without doing” (wu wei)- is temporarily lost.

I seek a straight but artificial path from Here to There for my mindless Doing.

Yet I am constantly interrupted in that quest by the latest twist or turn in the path we have chosen to walk together. It is nerve-wracking, disturbing, irritating — not knowing what is next or when the next next will not be predictable.

The anxiety and pressure, I’ve discovered, is on me, “my ego,” to get things done, to look good and strong.

This is ever the way when my focus is on the small minded task of my Ego-Doing. It is safe, limited, do-able (however much effort or patience or perseverance might be required) and ultimately an illusion. As I become more engrossed or consumed in reaching the goal or finishing-the-project, I tend to hold my muscles and breath with unnatural strain. My breathing stops being deep or thythmic.

The real world-of-spirit is infinitely connected. There is no pressure on the me or I to get things done because it is not me or I doing anything. I am Being directed by God with all the time and resources of the WHOLE available.

As I learn to turn my attention more continually to Spirit’s Guidance, I become less anxious about the discontinuation of my habitual doing and less anxious about my productivity achievements. In the same spirit-paradox of the “last shall be first,” my “doing” becomes both effortless and magnificently adequate. It becomes Nature’s Work or wu wei in its effortless mastery.

When “my habitual doing is interrupted, “I’ take it personally.

I’m busy! Back-off, universe! Why is this happening to “ME?” What did “I do to deserve this? Taking any thing from any circumstance personally is a guaranteed prescription for additional self-inflicted suffering. Whatever happens — it is never about ME personally. So stow the drama and save the organ music for the soaps.

Taking things personally sets up resistance vs “yield and overcome” and Be One.

NOT taking things personally opens up the BEING and wu wei side of things. It allows WHOLENESS which is healing and peaceful.

Humility, which is touted by so many religions, can be seen as simply withdrawing from this bubble of ego importance attached through our various identities with our clever Doing. I’m a “financial planner” — ” father” — “President of _____” — “man”– “big-shot athlete” etc. The attachment or identifying with these “roles” leads me into being “personally” attacked when some aspect of my role (mistakenly think me) is questioned or criticized.

The real “me? can observe these roles instead of identifying them as the same as “me.”

When I become “as a child” in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven/God, I understand these “serious” roles in my life as so much “play acting.”

“If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.” writes Oswald Chambers.

The Zen Life

Infinite Gratitude toward all things past.

Infinite Service toward all things present.

Infinite Responsibility toward all things future.

Emotions and feelings – crying and laughing. These are human responses. Aside from obvious physical trauma or pain leading to expressions, it seems that most of my responses have more genesis in my mental self-talk than in the actual events themselves.

How I attitudinally approach and event brings the stress to the event.

If I suppress my immediate feelings, then they accumulate like debris behind a dam until the emotional water-pressure and the weight of the debris leads to breaks in the obstruction. If, on the other hand, I am able to let the emotions and feelings be accepted immediately, then they can flow through in the moment before they have built up any real momentum.

The mental self-talk might arise mainly from the fear or sense of incompleteness — lack of wholeness — mental perceived reality of external enemies and conditions that could “really” harm me. When I am in One-ness in the Moment, the peace from the sense of wholeness greatly reduces those fears.

An equanimous attitude is more like nature. Despite the “violence” of many natural events, the “attitude” of nature is that of natural consequences.

There is no extra worry about the future or judgment of the past. The plants and animals just do their thing. They don’t agonize, judge over behaviors.

Few extremes. Life just is.

Intention appears to be one of the special gifts of humanity. Its subtle quality is different from desire for a goal or objective. It is very different from “animal desires” which can become addictive or compulsive in nature.

Intention seems like a quiet resolve — a pointing and focusing of the attention toward a certain state.

This state is always subject to change yet can become our intention until we realize it. In the sense that we are turning around from useless, scattered intention (wishful thinking or vague hope), there is an element of “forgiveness” or “redemption.” Intention seems to arise from our Being, not our Doing.

The less ego we have in the process, the deeper, wider, more effortless and more far-reaching is our intention.

Historical Prophecy Fulfilled

There are multiple references in the Old Testament that can be interpreted as foretelling the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Some of these are more cryptic than others. Regardless of how tight or loose you find the wording and how often subsequent meaning overlays are needed in order to reach a direct “hit,” there is the matter of historical timing of the events in Jesus’ life that moves His ministry from that of an interesting prophet into a play produced and directed by God.

How could someone possibly orchestrate the political climate and all the people involved so that He, as the Lamb of God, was crucified on Passover, rose from the dead on the Day of the Offering of the First Sheaf and then Pentecost occurs 7 weeks after the Offering of the First Sheaf on the Feast of Weeks (Harvest or First-fruits)? Coincidences that might be hard to miss…unless you were looking for a very different kind of messiah.

Example or Model of Sacrificial Love

There is no stronger love than that one would lay down their life for others. When your life has been heightened and expanded to the level of Christ Consciousness, as Jesus’ was, this act of sacrificial love takes on cosmic significance and power. In the Buddhist tradition, those reaching the upper reaches of spiritual development sometimes take the Vow of the Bodhisattva where they promise to return and help mankind until everyone is released from their suffering.

The same concept as with Jesus, yet his level of consciousness was so high, that his effects were universal.

Inner Interpretation — Death of Lower Nature/Ego/Flesh/Sinful Nature

The Cross re-presents the death of our lower nature with its ignorance of the truth, desires and attachments leading to sin and suffering. This is true freedom. This is the light burden and the easy yoke. As we are “born from above,” we re-all-eyes the oneness inherent in reality. We let go of the illusion of duality: good and evil, here and there, me and not-me. We become WHOLE, WHOLY, HOLY, HEALED, COMPLETE, and SAVED from our former fragmented brokenness. We move from “of” the world to “in” the world. We see and attain the Perfection in Paradise into which we enter.

Crucifixion was usually death by asphyxiation. With Spirit so closely related to Breath in language as well as practice, crucifixion literally pushes us to the point where we can no longer draw in that last bit of Spirit/Breath. This complete emptying finally prepares us for the in-pouring of the Spirit for our resurrected New Birth.

In I Corinthians 15:30, Paul says, “I die daily.”. This business of death and resurrection, like so many other cycles, happens at many levels. What Jesus did once and “for all” we continue to repeat as we journey closer to Him and become Lighter Beings more capable of Love.

A Way out of Sin and Suffering

John the Baptist preached (some say he sang) “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord. Make His Pathways Straight. Raise up the valleys, smooth down the mountains.” When Jesus as the Christ was done on the Cross and had emerged from the Tomb. The Way was there. It was finished. The mystical journey taken by seekers of various faiths all go through the level of Christ Consciousness on the Way to Oneness with God.

Prior to this act of sacrificial love, special seekers still found their way to God. It was simply far more difficult — not much of a trail had been blazed. The Taoist followers of the Way, the Buddhist Eight-fold Path, the various Hindu practices, Shamanic practices, Hebrew and Sufi mystical traditions all lead to God.

As the apostle Paul and countless other Christian mystics would attest, this process is not a done deal with a simple statement of belief and a commitment to have Christ in our lives. That is simply the beginning of a long and exciting journey as we endeavor to “Love Him more dearly, See Him more clearly, and Follow Him more nearly.”

We all have quite a number of selves (parts of our souls) that continue to cause us suffering. Some have been crucified, some have been buried and a few have rolled back the stone and gone Free in the Light.

With the help of Christ and our steady intent to be Free, the rest of us can some day be liberated from the chains of sin and death.

Salvation – From What?

A God who is more judgment than unconditional love would require some kind of payment/ransom to set things back to a right and fair balance with Himself.

Given Old Testament images, a blood sacrifice would be a nice touch and sacrificing your only Son makes for an even stronger quid pro quo. Given that kind of judgmental, inflexible God, we can even twist our logic into viewing such a thing as an act of love. For this God who we see as an Awesome and Fearful King rather than as a Loving Father, it could even be viewed as a benevolent act. (An act He admonished Abraham not to commit.)

Of course, for THAT kind of God, it wouldn’t end there. No, it would be up to us to “believe” or respond in some required way or face the final judgment of eternal damnation.

If, as I believe, God is Unconditional Love, who is way beyond the duality of Good and Evil. These, as well as other petty human characteristics we so often project on to the Divinity. God treats us ALL as Jesus described the shepherd and his wayward flock — not satisfied until ALL are accounted for and safe in His arms.

So if Salvation is not about deal making with a pouting, judgmental God who, after sacrificing His Only Begotten Son wants something from us, then it might be more about a Prodigal Son’s finally seeing the Light and returning to his Father’s Loving arms. We are being saved from our selves, from our free will, from our fear and from the attachments and ignorance born of that fear. We are being saved to a state of wholeness, grace and light where we know God intimately as His Children, Made in His Image.

Jesus, the human, walked this very same path to show us the Way. We need only follow Him. The Prodigal Son’s Father did not have a time schedule that said,

“If he’s not back in 1 day or 10 days, then he’s damned in my eyes.” Neither does our Father care whether it takes us one, ten or thousands of lives to get back to Him. His time is etermity and our access to that eternity is each NOW when we have choices of which Way to Follow.

Easter Thoughts: Easter Letter from Self-Realization Fellowship

During this blessed Easter season, I pray that the glorious promise Christ’s resurrection holds out to each soul may awaken within you renewed faith in the boundless potential of your immortal Self. The beloved Lord Jesus, in whom that God-consciousness was perfectly manifest, had to face the dualities of the world, as we do. But he rose above them and vanquished the most pernicious of illusions — that we are frail human beings, living out our lives within the narrow confines of birth and death. Through the radiant example of Jesus, God calls each of us to fulfill our highest destiny — to realize that we too are children of the Heavenly Father, meant to conquer all that hinders the pure and perfect expression of our innate divinity. That transformation comes through the little daily victories that subtly change and enlarge our consciousness until we can look beyond the narrow perspective of self-interest, ego-demands, and differences with people, and feel the divine love that sustains and unites us all.

It is human nature to respond to others according to how they treat us. But Jesus expressed the divine nature. His compassion for and understanding of evervone was so all-embracing that even in the midst of suffering beyond human endurance, he could show tender concern for those who thought themselves his enemies. It takes greater strength to forgive than to retaliate. That soul-power which Jesus brought forth is also present in you.

You can choose to let love rule in your life, however others behave. When someone speaks sharply and you resist the impulse to answer in kind; when someone wrongs you and instead of holding on to resentment, you turn within and say, “God, help me to feel Your love for that soul,” you are attuning yourself with the divine harmony that can bring peace into your life and the lives of others.

The Christlike empathy that perceives the beauty and goodness of every soul can only flow from a heart anchored in God’s limitless love. As your consciousness expands through deep inner communion with Him, the well-being of others becomes as important to you as your own. Ultimately one is able to say, as Paramahansa Yogananda did: “I know no strangers. What a great state of happiness and joy! Even the worst enemy cannot make me feel that I am not his friend. When that awakening comes, you are in love with all. You see that everyone is your Father’s child, and the love you feel for all beings never dies.” May that Christ-love grow within you until you can look at everyone with eyes of infinite understanding and behold with reverence the divine image hidden there.