You Don't Have to Sit Still

I just got back from meditation in downtown Zurich. This is a 2-hour Modern Day Meditation that's open to the public. Not all Miracle of Love meditations are open to the public, but they are on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month. We have a lot of guests at this meditation because, frankly, it's a kick-ass meditation. People like it.

Ways that the Modern Day Meditation is different than most other meditations:

• You get to meditate to music that rocks

• During the first part, you can dance, cry, scream, pace, or sit still

• You don't have to sit still

• You don't have to try to get rid of all your thoughts

• You learn to do what is called meditative thinking

This is the book about the Modern Day Meditation that Jim St. James wrote. It includes a CD of a guided meditation so you can teach yourself. You can buy the book on line at the Miracle of Love Bookstore. Or join us for meditations in Zurich.

Good night, sleep well.

Growing Potatoes

Just a short note tonight about starting a potato garden. At this time of year potatoes like to grow and all they need is someone to plant them.

I am not a gardener. But I think that everyone should know something about gardening. It's embarrassing to be so removed from the natural flow of things that you don't know how to do basic gardening things. Like shoveling mulch into a sack, dumping it on your garden plot and spreading it around.

It's good to know that potatoes are simple vegetables. You just have to dig a trench and drop them in one by one about 6 - 8 inches apart and then cover up the trench with a mound of soil. You don't even have to cut up the potatoes or buy seeds or anything fancy. A potato is a humble and friendly vegetable.

So even if people make fun of you because you're growing potatoes -- this happened to me -- it is good to do it anyway. So what if potatoes are boring? One must make the first step to being a gardener.

So also in life. We take the first humble steps as we set out on a new course. We endure ridicule if it comes and hold our heads high. Because without those first steps, there is no new course.

I wish you many first steps and that many potatoes growing in your garden.

Getting There

Good evening from the Black Forest, also known in these parts as Schwartzwald. My husband and I had a rousing discussion today in the sauna (we're on vacation) about how one gets "there." "There" meaning reaching the goal of a spiritual path. I know some people say that there is no "There" in the spiritual pursuit, but I don't buy it. Even if There is the most natural place in the world inside of you all the time, it is still "there" as opposed to "here." Sorry, but it is a goal. No matter what one says when one is being spiritually correct.

So in the discussion my husband and I had about how to get "There" we came up with these three things:

1. Feel your own desire ever more strongly

2. Follow the teachings of a master (you simply can't do it alone)

3. Listen to your own inner voice and take heed

Without any one of these three things, you just can't make it to where any self-respecting spiritual seeker wants to get. For me personally the place I want to get is to "Christ consciousness." As in "the Christ," not necessarily Jesus.

There are a lot of "quotations" in this post. I can feel myself making the quote sign in the air each time I write the quotes. So much of spirituality exists within the quote marks. The main reason for that is that spirituality, by its very nature, is not expressible in words. All that we really have are weird words and phrases that maybe remind you of church when you were a kid or of some science fiction movie. At best the words would bring to mind scenes from The Matrix. Red pill or blue pill?

Anyway, you can imagine that the conversation of my husband and I in the sauna, was full of quote-worthy words. We were doing our best in our argumentative, contemplative way to make sense of something that is beyond sense.

So now, I will say what I am after without any quote marks and without using the phrase Christ consciousness: What got me hooked on the spiritual endeavor is the belief that it will get me out of here. I want to transcend this mundane world where I've never felt at home. I like what's happening to me as I'm letting go of my attachment to who I think I am. Letting go actually makes it more pleasing to be alive and makes me more available to other people and, more importantly, more available to God. That statement about God is a very conceptual one and I apologize. Normally I would use quote marks somewhere in there.

But I am not really that clear about my spiritual goal. Do I want to be a great spiritual master? Heavens, no. Too difficult. Do I want to be in this world, but not of this world like Jesus said? Yes, definitely. Do I want to get freer every day? Yes, for sure.

Since I started in earnest on a spiritual path, my life has gotten much more interesting and I can honestly say that my life feels like a life worth living. This is a good sign. But my goal is hazy. It's not like in corporate meetings that I've facilitated. You can come up with a goal in dollars and cents or in what you want to accomplish this year, etc. But spiritual freedom is not quite like that. How do you measure "doing God's will" or "living as God would have it" or the like? Maybe you can't measure it. But that doesn't mean you can't get "there."

I know, the quote marks are back.

If you are on a defined spiritual path, then you know what I mean. If you are on an undefined spiritual path, you know what I mean. This is not the easiest way to live life, but it is one of the most satisfying.

Kalindi says that with God, everything gets better. However getting better is not the goal but a side effect. This is a clue to what the true goal of spiritual work is. Gourasana said, "You must give up how you want it to be and live life as God wants it to be."

What do you think?

Warm regards to you and goodnight.

First Thing in the Morning

I wake up feeling like a blur of color and moods. And I feel cranky. Slowly the colors and moods arrange themselves into a pattern that I call Me.

It's kind of like when I turn on my laptop. It has to go through all the circuits and whatever other virtual spaces it explores, before it shows up with the password page indicating, "Okay, now you can come in. I'm ready."

Before I come all the way back on line and back into the pattern I call Me, I start a morning meditation. Morning meditation starts like this: I realize that I am no longer asleep. I sit up. I stumble to the bathroom and brush my teeth. Then I come back to bed, pull the covers up to my chin and grab my journal. Then I sit quietly and listen for the whispers of God. I sometimes hear answers to questions and sometimes I'll remember something that I didn't know I forgot. I write all this down. (Sometimes I fall back asleep, but I consider this meditation, too.) Usually I sit for about 30 minutes.

I get answers to questions. My friend Claire says she gets answers to questions in the shower. But answers usually come to me in the morning with this meditation or soon after. It makes me smile because I like that the answers come in God's timing and I like being patient and waiting for them. And if I got answers in the shower, I might fall down. I hate that.

Usually the things I remember in meditation are about people. A person will come to my mind, I'll feel something about him and then realize that I need to call him. Calling that person probably would not occur to me during my waking hours, but when I'm sitting in meditation, it makes perfect sense. So I write it down and sometime later in the day, I call him.

And it's not like I call him and he exclaims, "Oh my God, I can't believe you're calling me today! I really needed to talk to you!" or anything. It's not magic. It feels more like calling the person is just something I need to do. Sometimes I don't know why. When I call him, whatever happens happens.

The result of this kind of meditation in the morning is that I get out of bed feeling refreshed, feeling alive and not feeling so cranky anymore.

"Okay, now you can come in. I'm ready."

Thank you for listening. Good night.

Pray & Trust

I got an email from a friend named Ann tonight requesting prayers. Her husband just found out that he has cancer. She really loves her husband and loves her life with him. The news of his cancer is catastrophic. Ann is a wise woman so she wrote to her friends asking for prayers. She left it open what we pray for.

The world could be seen as a big support group to get us through this life.

I used to think that the point of life was to learn as much as possible. Now I have learned that that is NOT the point of life. There is not one point to life. It is different for different people. I like to learn, so naturally I figured that was true for everyone.

Now I don't know what The Point of Life is. My certainty about this learning thing got broken up and scattered like Mercury from a busted thermometer. The certainty turned into a bunch of silver balls and they rolled under the couch and table and the cat was chasing one of them but you don't want the cat to catch it because Mercury is poisonous. Anyway, the point is I no longer think I know what the point of life is.

I do feel that there are no accidents. Ann's husband's cancer is no accident. "Easy for you to say," you might say, "and let's find out what you say about this when a disaster strikes you." Fair enough. But as of this moment, I would say that there are no accidents, meaning things are happening as they should be, based on some gigantic plan made by God. The plan is REALLY big and takes EVERYTHING into account, so none of us could ever figure it out -- try as we may.

The only thing we can do when it comes down to it, is to trust. And then trust some more. Then fall apart and find the trust again. Then think you've got it all figured out and then have it crumble and then find the trust yet again. You just end up having to trust in the Big Picture. You trust God.

I pray for my friend and her husband. I pray that their hearts open to each other like never before. I pray that they find more trust than ever before. I don't pray that he lives through this because that is in God's hands. But I do pray that the experience they have adds more love to this world somehow. Got knows we need it.

Love to you and good night.

Enlightenment Through the Looking Glass

My latest project is finding ways to get over myself. What I mean by getting over myself is dropping my self-concern and self-absorption in favor of something more interesting and less riddled with suffering.

So, you might ask, what could possibly be more fascinating for me than gazing at my own problems and concerns? Good question!

First of all, I have noticed that my problems and concerns are oddly repetitive. It's like they're on a loop that goes around and around in my head. The themes are the same. If my concerns and problems were made into a novel, I would never read it. Too boring. Maybe your internal loops are more interesting than mine.

Second of all, when I gaze at my problems, it's kind of like looking at myself in a mirror. The same thing happens. In the mirror what I notice is my hair (does it look good or not?) and all my blemishes and imperfections. This is what I see -- same thing every time.

But when I can get over myself, it's like stepping through the looking glass just like you-know-who in Wonderland. There is a very different world on the other side of the looking glass. But I have to get over myself first, time and time again.

My best strategies for getting over myself are Awareness and Meditation. Awareness interrupts the loop that's playing and it sounds something like this: "Man, this is boring (or painful or crazy). I'm so tired of my opinions and problems. God, what do You want?" When I consider what God might want, all my petty issues and opinions lose their attraction.

Now, God is very interesting. Especially if you explore the Gourasana aspect of God. Then you really find out about the experience of going through the looking glass.

In meditation (I recommend the Modern Day Meditation) you can get closer to God, closer to Gourasana and further away from the boringness of issues, problems, concerns, etc. What a relief! I think that this is at least partly what Kalindi means when she talks about enlightenment.

So as you are pursuing enlightenment, start with getting better at getting over yourself. That's what I'm doing. It's an endeavor worth the effort.

Thank you for listening. Good night.