Atheists

There is a wonderful discussion going on on the Internet and news programs between a brilliant religious scholar Reza Aslan and some well known atheists, Bill Maher among them. I won't go into too much of the details of this discussion; you can read the latest on the Salon website. But it has really got me thinking.

Recently Stephen Hawking stated that he had proof that God did not exist, something about there being equal parts matter and dark matter so nothing had to be created. Thus no need for a Creator. I'm not a physicist so I'm sure there are parts to this logic that I don't understand, but it occurs to me that it's much easier to "prove" that something exists than it is to prove that it doesn't exist. If someone says something does not exist, doesn't it seem possible that they perhaps haven't found it yet using the tools and methods that they've been using so far?

The experience of God is not discovered in the mind, in thoughts and logic, so scientists are at a real disadvantage. God can't be talked about or repeated in a way that someone else can see in print or  hear as a listener. God has no objective qualities, at least none that can be distinguished from all the rest of the objective world. God is pure subject, pure experiencing, consciousness itself. The light of awareness shines out of the unknown, the unknowable in fact. So It cannot be named nor described. But God can be experienced and each one of us has that capacity, because we too are experiencers. But it must be explored and discovered by each individual.

Each one of us is aware but we don't "do" awareness, we just "are" aware. Awareness happens effortlessly. Our awareness is a light that shines out of nowhere, out of the unknown. When Jesus said, "I am the light", he was identifying with himself as pure awareness. If we pay attention to being aware and not just what we are aware of, we to can feel peace and love emanating out of that Unknown. Sages and wise men for thousands of years have referred to that as feeling Divine Presence, our true identity. Jesus also said "I and my Father are One". So when we identify with the light of pure awareness and not with the objects of that awareness, we feel our relationship with God.

And that sets us up to be accused of being self-delusional, right? Well, I guess I would rather be free to explore all the possibilities of life's experiences and end up loving it, than fearing exploration because what I mght find can't be trusted.

Asking for Help

One off the things that becomes apparent as we explore the whole realm of Spirit, is that help for us and our problems is always available. It is actually hard wired into the whole system, into who we are. Because we are not separate individuals as we have assumed all our lives, when we ask for help, we are recognizing that part of us that we previously thought was outside of ourselves, but is really the expanded, Divine part that just isn't as visible.

What I do when I feel isolated is close my eyes and simply say "I need help". And then I wait and watch inside and it always happens that the sensation of "something is wrong" or "something is missing" becomes just that: merely a bodily sensation. As I watch that sensation, it gradually changes into a sense of peace, "a peace that passeth understanding".

With that peace comes a knowing that everything is alright.

Ask and it shall be given.

Feeling Separate

All of the crap in the world and inside each one of us as individuals, is a result of not realizing that we are one with Divine Consciousness...God. But why, if all of this is God, did God decide to allow or cause so much pain and suffering? Good question.

I can only imagine (as many before me have imagined) that God being creative energy got bored with being ONE and sitting contentedly in that knowing. So It decided to explore the creative possibilities of the world of TWO, or as the Tao calls it, the beginning of the 10,000 things.

Now to really explore the possibilities of the dualistic realm, good and evil, likes and dislikes, me and not me, God had to forget that It was all of the universe and really believe that it was something separate, individual. We are that forgetting. We believe that we are separate beings totally contained within our bodies and our minds. Our job is to find our way home.

The key to overcoming the suffering of that separation, is to first realize that everything in our experience is our Divine Self doing and exploring exactly what we are meant to be doing at each and every moment. That has the effect of shining the light of truth into our experience and availing ourselves to the unlimited power and resources of who we really are.

Second, don't take your mind and it's thoughts too seriously. The mind specializes in distinguishing between things; between what it likes and doesn't like, chasing those it does and trying to avoid those it doesn't. Begin looking at emotions and bodily sensations as something to be explored and not necessarily acted on. Look at them, love them, but don't struggle to make them go away. Accepting them activates your Divine love light which knows more what to do with them than you do.

The third thing is to persevere. Don't be discouraged if life doesn't instantly and permanently turn into Heaven On Earth. We have generations of mental habits that we slip back into the minute things don't go quite the way we want them to. This takes time but by loving and accepting yourself, you will begin to feel the peace and happiness that is the ground of our true identity coming through. God works in rhythms and seasons. You don't cut down a fruit tree in January because it bears no fruit.

Finally don't be afraid to ask God for help. Because your consciousness is really Divine Consciousness, help is hardwired into who you are. It is saying I believe that I am more than I used to assume that I was, and I am now reaching into THAT part of me for guidance. Then sit quietly and listen.

It might help to see all of the physical world and the world of the mind and senses as the waves on the surface of the ocean. We only see the surface, the disturbance, and don't see or understand what is beneath it. But it is ALL water. We just can't see the source and cause of the waves. It is possible however to feel our waterness, the connection to the source of our concsiousness. When Jesus said "I and my Father are one", he knew what we all can know.

Worrying

Here’s an exercise .

Imagine for a moment your life without worry. Just for a moment, look at everything that you have, everything you are doing, your plans for the next few days, weeks, month, but look at it without the element of worry in it. Don’t worry about money or security or whatever you worry about. Just look at your life at this moment with only the worrying removed.

How does it look? Oh, and by the way, don’t worry about not worrying, you can reintroduce worrying back into your picture in a moment. But for right now, just a few minutes, think about your life as if there was nothing to worry about.

How does it look? How do you feel?

When I do this, I realize how good I have been at creating a very nice life for myself. I get to meditate a lot during the day; we have a nice apartment in a cool neighborhood, in a very cool city. We go for a long walk everyday with the dogs down to the waterfront, sometimes stopping to have a drink overlooking the marina. We eat out a lot because Kim is blogging about Vegan food in Portland. We have plans for traveling to visit family in the next month and more.

Now comes the amazing part. I have been able to manifest all of this very cool life… all the while worrying about it at the same time.

Now I wonder what would happen if I didn’t waste so much time worrying and spent more time creating. How much more productive could I be without worry taking up so much of my time? Worrying doesn’t seem to be particularly destructive or dangerous; it just takes up so much valuable creative time. How much more wonderful stuff would be happening in my life if I didn’t waste ANY time worrying?

Choice

It seems to me that we have only one real choice in life, and that is to either accept or reject what's happening to us at this moment. If we reject it we are functioning primarily in our mind, obsessed with thinking about what is wrong. We are judging this moment to be insufficient in some way. We are angry about something or someone, disappointed, wishing we had more or less of something. Just thinking constantly about how things should be different.

When we are doing this, limiting our experience to only what is running around in our heads, our field of opportunity and influence is also limited.

When we are accepting of this moment however, we are participating much more in Reality and less in our perceptions and judgments of it. When we say I accept this moment, it is an opening of our awareness to what is going on right now, in us and around us. Even if we start from "But I don't like what's happening in my life," you can look at any bodily sensation that may be a result of not liking this moment, and experience it without thinking about it or judging it. Accept all of your feelings. Move from thinking about your life, to feeling it. Accepting bodily sensations and looking right at them is no longer thinking thoughts that are fueling your discomfort. You begin opening yourself and engaging in what is going on inside and outside of you. Experiencing living instead of only thinking about it.

Once we are outside of our judging mind and feeling inside our bodies, we are participating in this moment. Thus we are more open and available to whatever energies are active around and through us. The Present is the only place that anything really happens. It's the only place Reality is. Acceptance is like telling God "I'm not complaining about your beautiful manifestation anymore." That opens us up and allows Love/Acceptance to flow out of us. And God is like a mirror in that everything that comes out of us comes back to us.

Remember, we are always one with Divine Love. Thinking can fool us into believing we are not.

I Think, Therefore I Am

Who we are as a separate individual at any given moment, is a thought. It is a thought about a desire, a fear, a memory. It might be a memory of painful experiences which creates a thought about fearing getting something we don't want or not getting something we do want. But all of our beliefs about who we are as Rick or Sally or Johnny are just the thought (or memory thought) that we are having at this moment. Always at this moment. Nowhere or no when else.

Thoughts are like clouds; they can obscure the blue sky of who we truly and always are, but don't eliminate it. No matter how many thought clouds we have, the sky is always blue.

The more attention we can put into our experience of this moment and let our thoughts float through without identifying or attaching to them, the more this energy of who we always truly are can come though. One of the results of doing this is its effect on our subsequent thoughts. When we watch our experiences of this moment and let our thoughts come and go, one of the thoughts that begins to show up naturally, and I believe, by design is Trust.

We can't know with any certainty what is going on to create this reality that we all experience. So it makes sense that we also can't know what is going to happen in the next year, week or even the next minute. But the more attention we put into the only reality that really exists, this moment, the more we begin to trust the energy of that reality to influence our lives.

Trust cannot be thought or wished into reality, it must be experienced as an element of the energy of this moment. Then trust will be its own reward. But it will also allow the creative energy of this reality, (which brings flowers in the spring and apples to an apparently barren tree) into our experience. That might take the shape of inspiration or just plain relief from worrying.

Trust has a way of snowballing. As inspiration and creativity come, so do the resources we need to fulfill the destiny of the Source of that energy.

Watch for it and find it.