Monthly Musings
July - August 2007
Miester Ekhart said "man's best chance of finding God is to look in the place where we left Him". I have often reflected back at trials, conflicts, relationships, road blocks in my life when I was asking the question, "Where is God in this” Where is God in this relationship? In this person? With a little self-exploration it is fairly easy to see that God has never left me but rather that I had set God aside for a moment, or two or three. Perhaps not only relegated God to the dusty confines of the closet of my subconscious mind but worse yet, replaced God with conditions, people, circumstances, disbelief, or things.
In essence I gave these "things" in my life the primary spot of importance. I gave them dominion over myself. And by doing so I disabled the active participation of God in my life by not holding up my end of the creative partnership. And that is to remain vigilant in being conscious of God at all times and in all relationships. I blocked the creative flow; I dammed up the river. I broke the commandment "Thou shall have no other Gods before me".
And the truth is that all the things I put in God's place are nothing more than illusion. They are a part of what many cultures call “Dream time”. They are the play things of the human mind that exist only in a state of having fallen asleep to the truth. A world that consists only of human judgment, assumptions, interpretations and analysis which we know can be flawed. Even science tells us that our bodies are nothing more than a collection of energy that we have decided with our collective mind to make into objects. You... me... all of us are simply energy that we have decided on a mental and physical plane to form into what we call a body.
Science has told us that we are made up 99.9 percent of same "stuff", and that we are exchanging cellular energy with each other even as you read this. Some scientists have taught that the cellular energy of Jesus, of Buddha and other enlightened masters are part of the breath we just took and their energy exists in us right now. Now before we get all pumped thinking that makes us spiritually enlightened, they also say the same is true of Hitler and Ghengis Khan. All life that is, or ever was, is the energy of God itself, and we enter a place of "dream time", or illusion when we forget that there is only one and there is a spiritual perfection behind every human condition.
In my continual search to know God, to know this energy, to know love and to find true meaning in my earthly existence, I have found great success through retracing my steps. Retracing my steps to recall where it was I last left God, where I last set love down, where it was I drifted off to the place of dreaming and left behind the world of spiritual reality. Retracing my steps to find where I last remember being aware that God was with me, and that I was actively and consciously putting the energy of God into play by using my inner eyes, not just my human eyes.
Inevitably I come to a place of personal choice. A place of unconsciousness where it was easier to be angry, to play the victim or to judge than it was to apply the truth of oneness. This was a place of personal decision to rely on my human understanding instead of spiritual truth.
This backward look requires me to be vulnerable and humble enough to face some of my mistakes, insecurities and human flaws. It not only opens the closet doors to where I have relegated but it also brings me face to face with the reasons I set God down in the first place. It's not always a pretty look. Maybe it was ignorance, anger, sadness, judgment or just plain being asleep. Regardless of the reason, the look can be exceptionally helpful in bringing me back into alignment with the present moment.
This exploration is not about beating myself up but is all about embracing my humanness in all it's imperfection that I may then consciously enter a state of spiritual grace and choose again! It helps me be more mindful of holding on to spiritual truth now no matter how dark or light, pretty or ugly, easy or difficult life is.
In truth, God is always with us even when we don't recognize it. Right? God is in every one no matter the external circumstance or condition, right? But sometimes it takes spiritual eyes to see it, not physical eyes. It's like the day I was walking around the house ranting and raving about where my glasses were as I desperately turned my world upside down in a frantic quest to see again. "Someone must have moved them...stolen them! When all the while they were sitting right on my head. God is the same way. This process of looking for God doesn’t mean God isn't there but that our awareness is blocked, our human eyes are blinded to what is truly right in front of us, or right inside of us or another.
How exciting would life be if I looked with that much intention and vigilance for God in the people that rub me the wrong way? What if I looked with that much passion into the eyes of every person who crosses my path... how about the person in the mirror every morning? How much more God would I experience in my life? Life would be so much more spirit filled if I only put that much energy into it.
I challenge us all to throw off the pajamas of our dream time and put on the cloak of understanding as we look back at the relationships and circumstances in our lives where we have laid God. Let us pick God back up with a new determination! Look for forgiveness as diligently as you do for your glasses. God lives in forgiveness. Look for compassion and understanding like you are trying to find your keys. God lives in compassion and understanding. Find patience, tolerance and love...God lives in all of them, and I know God lives in you.
Namaste, Richard