Transcendence – A More Discerning View
“When your inner and outer worlds harmonize, your relationships do too.”
— from a Yogi teabag tag
“The line separating good from evil passes not through states, nor between classes,
nor between political parties either — but through every human heart …
Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
A spiritual teacher writing a blog must listen when readers challenge what she/he/they have said. Such a dialog can be a growth opportunity for all involved. My last two blog posts, Transcending Judgment and Transcending Anger generated considerably more feedback (pushback?) than any other blog posts I’ve written. A short summary of the critiques: The readers’ felt that they had been asked to set aside their convictions of what it means to be a responsible citizen of Planet Earth. How could I suggest that we not condemn Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack and war crimes in Ukraine? Or the acts of those who seem hell-bent to undermine democracy in the USA? Or our indifferent collective response to environmental degradation? Or unbridled greed fueling harm to Earth’s environment. Or corporate hoarding of resources to support their profit and personal gain? Or pain visited upon many because of racial or gender identity? In one sense, those critiques are valid. How can one work toward positive change without acknowledging the problems and opportunities? On the other hand, when judgment results in condemnation, polarization follows and makes matters worse.
I found a pathway through this conundrum in an online article about the difference between judgment and discernment [https://www.awakeningself.com/writing/judgement-vs-discernment/]. It’s a great article. I hope you will read it for clarity about the difference between judgment and discernment.
After reading this article, it’s clear that I am advocating that we transcend judgment and embrace discernment. I am grateful for that insight. I also checked the definition of transcend to see if there was a way to harmonize my inner and outer worlds, while still being an integrous person. The first two definitions in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary are:
1. “To be or go beyond the range or limits of something abstract.”[like judgment and anger]
2. “To triumph over the negative or restrictive aspects of …” [Based on the above-referenced article, discernment can move us beyond the negative and restrictive aspects of judgment and anger.]
In retrospect, my mind was anchored in the first, more abstract definition of transcendence when writing my last two blog posts. So, let’s consider how our understanding of transcendence shifts when we use the 2nd definition. How can we objectively understand events and trends in today’s world without becoming contaminated by fear, and resulting anger and hatred toward people whom we hold responsible? Not allowing those “negative or restrictive aspects” to penetrate our innermost being is essential if humanity is to finally experience peace on Earth, after millennia of seeking it. Using discernment rather than judgment is an important positive step.
Perhaps the most profound wisdom I have yet encountered about the presence of good and evil in our world is the above quote from The Gulag Archipelago, a classic 3-volume opus from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the 20th-century Russian dissident, and author. [If you’re unfamiliar with the book or its author, Wikipedia has a good summary description.]
When I accept Solzhenitsyn’s wisdom, I understand myself as kin with those whom we blame for the world’s ills. This softens my reflexive need to condemn and demonize them. I can despise their actions without hating them. After all, but for the grace of God, there go I. It’s good to remember that Solzhenitsyn ended his quote with “even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”. When I consider that every human being on Earth is a blend of body and soul, I believe his words speak an eternal truth. When an overmatched soul combines with a powerfully egotistic Homo sapiens host, it can be overwhelmed, but its essential nature is still a being of love and wisdom. When I see a demagogue like Putin trying to bully his way toward his vision of honor and glory, I remember that there remains a small bridgehead of good in the background of his being. Then, I cannot bring myself to hate him, even though I deeply deplore his actions. I pray for him to wake up and sense the being of love within his tortured heart. I also pray that he be removed from power if this isn’t possible for him, by whatever means facilitate peace and loving-kindness on Earth.
Closing thought: I take great comfort in knowing there is more going on than we can observe while immersed in the surface roar of life. I suggest reading my blog post #3, There is a Tide, [still live on the website] to get a feel for where my comfort is anchored. The vast majority of the energy in the universe is non-physical. That does not mean it is distant and disinterested in events on Earth. God / Love is everywhere, indwelling all of Its creation. That is the source of love that is destined to replace fear in our collective psyche. As that shift unfolds, the chaotic violence in our present-day world will fade and peace will flourish. We are now living amid the tumultuous, faith-shaking chaos inherent in such a momentous shift. We need to trust the process(es) and thank God that our world is a more hopeful place than it appears to be.
Love to all beings! Love to Mother Earth!
Amen.
Transcending Anger
“To live without comparison removes a tremendous burden."
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
“Do you trust yourself enough to allow your own awakening?”
— indigenous elder from the documentary film, Time of the Sixth Sun
Serving the world by sharing the love and wisdom that flow through me feeds my soul. I began the Cosmic Chronicles blog several months ago as a way to touch more hearts by expanding my efforts. This week I recognized that the process of writing the blog is also a key aspect of my own spiritual growth. It blesses me with insights and clarity that I might not encounter without it. The subject of transcending problems is a good example. Our last blog, Transcending Judgment, is fundamental to our spiritual growth. The two quotes above are equally relevant to this one. Today’s blog focuses on transcending a more specific life challenge.
There has been a thread of anger accompanying me through life for more than seven decades. It began with despair at age seven when I was taken to a revival service. The speaker said that God could not love us because we had inherited original sin via humanity’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. Since then, we have all been born sinners. I took it personally and believed him when he said God despised me and wanted to send me to Hell. It was a shocking blow for a young boy who was raised on Jesus Loves Me at Sunday School. I was shattered to find out I was not worthy of God’s love. The decades from then until mid-life were spent striving to redeem my sinful nature, all the while angry and resentful that life had placed me in the precarious position of having to earn God’s approval to access heaven’s doors. That anger resulted in a negative spiral of life errors that seemed to confirm over and over my belief that I was an unworthy person. I have been haunted by those behaviors ever since still feeling sad and guilty that I misused so many people. The fact that guilty feelings remain decades after those events, means I am still disappointed and angry with myself. Harkening back to our last blog, I have been judging myself! Until I stop doing that, those sad misadventures from decades ago will continue to haunt my todays. Continuing to judge my past has kept feeding my inner anger. So, the path to transcending anger requires that I stop judging myself. When I stop doing that, anger will dissipate because guilt is no longer feeding it.
It has been interesting to notice that even though anger has been present since those early years, it is no longer attached to the events that originally caused it. My anger keeps attaching itself to various blame targets as if it had a life of its own. I have come to believe anger is an activity of the ego designed to keep it in charge. Once a particular reason for feeling unworthy (e.g., being bullied) fades away, the ego shifts its focus to another life challenge to refresh and sustain its dominion over my life.
I am now eighty and more than ready for anger to be done. I recently realized that my anger over the past decade has been attached to aging. It has been very frustrating that my body’s physical capacities and memory seem to keep gradually shrinking. It seems inevitable for life to feel
smaller with the passage of time. I have been comparing life from my past with today and making judgments about the differences. A point of clarity has emerged; when a problem is self-created within us, we cannot overpower it or step around it. For a psychic problem to leave me, I must recognize and accept it, then allow its energy to move through me to leave my psyche in peace. Yes, I must also accept aging, but it is only something the anger is attached to for now. The primal character flaw I must transcend is the guilt that feeds the anger. Then the anger itself can fade away. Otherwise, anger will just attach to some other aspect of my life. Each time anger explodes from inside, I feel like a self-sabotaging mockery of the better self I am meant to be! I have been dancing with anger for most of my life, and finally writing about it makes me feel hopeful, like the lessons it brought are nearing completion.
So, where does the path take those of us who wish to transcend such character flaws? It’s true that Homo sapiens are by nature cantankerous beings, but does that condemn all of us to forever struggle with our innate limitations? Without the presence of God within us, the answer would likely be, “Yes, we’re stuck!”. But we are more than the Homo sapiens half of our nature. Our soul is the presence of God within us, and therein lies our hope. When we turn our attention to the deepest part of our being, we find that we are One with our Creator. We are already connected to the Power that has transcended the shortcomings of the entire Cosmos. Within that oneness, guilt, anger, or other shortcomings do not exist. Our transcendence lies in our oneness with God. Except for the occasional avatar, that level of awakening lies beyond our human capacities. To complete our experience of oneness with God we need to accept God’s help. Only the Beloved can complete our process of awakening. What we can do right now, today is ask for God’s help and be grateful as it arrives. We get to live the process of spiritual growth as our life unfolds. Are you ready to seek God’s help? Such surrender is counter-intuitive to the Homo sapiens mind, so awakening into our full transcendence will unfold step by step as we open to allow it. I am moving forward in faith that transcending anger is about to arrive. I have found my path forward from here; with God’s help, I will walk it with guidance and inspiration.
This lifetime is a gift that lasts until our last breath. May you find your path and enjoy the journey. Remember to be grateful.
Love and Blessings to all!
Transcending Judgment
“To live without comparison removes a tremendous burden." (my emphasis)
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
When I first encountered this Krishnamurti quote, it instinctively felt powerful, but only contemplation revealed why. If we lived without comparison, our mind’s basis for making judgments would evaporate. Wouldn’t that be something — a world without comparison would be a world without judgment! Racism and blame would disappear from our collective minds, along with all the demonizing and finger-pointing that fuel the world’s fears and negativity.
While pondering Krishnamurti’s wisdom, I recalled a deep question that caught my attention when watching Time of the Sixth Sun several months ago. It is a documentary film featuring indigenous people from all over the globe sharing their wisdom about spiritual awakening. One of the indigenous elders asked, “Do you trust yourself enough to allow your own awakening?” (my emphasis). I urge you to consider what these two quotations mean to you. Then, contemplate what happens if we merge the two quotes. My first thought was, “To live without judgment opens the door to one’s awakening.”. Then came a somewhat different take, “Do you trust the flow of your awakening enough to allow judgment to disappear?”
Contemplation about combining these two powerful quotes can be a fruitful exercise for each of us. To date this exercise is not complete for me, so I offer no conclusion. Perhaps it’s better for each of us to contemplate our own responses. Life isn’t a quiz; it is an open-ended process. That means our ‘best answer’ to fundamental life questions evolves as we grow. Our spiritual growth often lies in wrestling with life’s questions.
Considering the above paragraph, we can think of Krishnamurti’s observation as a loving gift; a clue about overcoming the deeply engrained habit of making judgments. His attention to the subject also implies that living without comparison is a necessary step toward awakening. Often, changing deeply held habits that hamper our growth is challenging work, but it is essential for our spiritual evolution. Beloved friends, let us be grateful for the opportunity that lies before us.
It is time to …
· awaken from the lethargy that accompanies feeling hopeless and powerless.
· live without comparison and break the judgment habit.
· allow condemnation, animosity, and strife to perish from the Earth.
· awaken within us the truth that we are beings of love and light. We do live, move, and have our being within God. We are one!
· embrace the Heart of Love that lies within every person.
· allow love, faith, and grace to transcend fear.
Amen! Love, peace, and blessings to all!
Believe Me When I tell You
This is a different kind of blog. Please relax and be patient as I lead you through meditation. To begin, consider the song title/lyrics below:
How Could Anyone Ever Tell You?
“How could anyone ever tell you,
you were anything less than beautiful?
How could anyone ever tell you,
you were less than whole?
How could anyone fail to notice
that your loving is a miracle –
how deeply you’re connected to my soul?”
— lyrics and music, Libby Rodrick
— my favorite recording, Karen Drucker
Next, search online: “How Could Anyone Ever Tell You” by Karen Drucker. Then close your eyes and listen to the lyrics as she sings the song for you 2-3 times. Try speaking or singing along with her. When you are ready, please thank Karen and silence her for now.
You might find it especially meaningful to imagine your parents or spouse slowly reading or singing the lyrics to you. Take a moment for that experience with those most significant to your life pathway. You may want to do the same for siblings, other families, or friends. It might be especially powerful to envision sharing the song with anyone who has hurt you or suffered pain from you. Creation has no boundaries; nor does this meditation need any. Trust your intuition.
Try expanding the context. Imagine your favorite place in nature and sing the song to it. Let nature sing the song back to you. Try the same exchange with Mother Earth. You can stop whenever the exercise feels complete to you, or just keep going until the Cosmos and you are exchanging love and gratitude. Allow yourself to feel love and acceptance, so the experience is real in your heart.
The ultimate context:
When you are ready — allow the God of your understanding to speak or sing the song to you. As a final stage, you might find it helpful to use my revised words below, as if God was speaking directly to you. Does this shift the way Oneness feels in your heart? Take time to let it soak in.
Believe Me When I tell You
Beloved child of My Heart —
Believe me, when I tell you, you are beautiful.
Believe me, when I tell you, you are whole.
Believe me when I tell you,
your whole life is a miracle.
How deeply you’re connected to my Soul!
Love and blessings to all.
Say YES to Your Creativity
“We have been given a gift. It’s an energy that flows right through you ...
and you become the instrument of that idea.”
– Peter Jemison (Seneca, Heron Clan), painter and filmmaker
During the two-plus decades of retirement, I’ve facilitated a number of classes, given a couple of dozen talks, and written/published two books; all telling the stories of love and wisdom that have flowed into my life. These gifts of love and wisdom have always been accompanied by a clear understanding that they are to be shared with the world. My wife and I have also greatly enriched our appreciation of the natural beauty and cultural richness of the world by traveling widely. We have friends around the globe that make the world feel smaller and more friendly. But, being a citizen of the world is really a matter of loving the world with no limitations, geographic or otherwise — extensive travel is not necessary.
All the creativity and growth experienced through these various activities, projects, and outcomes, arose within the ongoing flow of life since retirement began. The only relevant intention I set was to ‘reinvent Foster’ when I chose early retirement. I had no idea what that even meant. I just wanted to feel useful to the world and avoid post-retirement burnout, boredom, and death that came ‘too soon'. I had seen that happen to two of my favorite career leaders within three years of their retirement. That ‘reinvent Foster’ intention has shaped my life ever since. I now can see that spiritual growth has been my reinvention. You aren’t required to wait for retirement to choose reinvention of your life! What would happen if you did?
I turned eighty in July, so one might wonder if or when my enthusiasm for life will fade, but so far, creativity just keeps flowing [Here I am writing a blog!]. Where does this creativity come from? And why does it continue to delight my senior years? Some thoughts follow:
- Since inviting my life to be ‘reinvented’, a perfect pathway just unfolded, step by step. Somehow, I ended up in a spiritual development line, so all I had to do was keep saying ‘yes’ as opportunities showed up — often of their own volition! I could never have made such a thing happen! The truth is, I had no idea where life was taking me. It turned out that an open mind and heart about how one’s life unfolds, allowed it to expand into its own potential. One’s reinvention comes when we dare to trust the flow of life, moment by moment.
- Experience has consistently demonstrated that creativity flows more freely when we don’t try to steer. Trying to control the flow of creative gifts to you from the Universe, is like puttering with the wheel on a child’s car seat; it doesn’t work because it’s not attached to anything. Since you can’t make creativity flow, you might as well relax and take a break when it’s not happening. Loving and trusting life is a much more powerful link to creativity than trying to plan and control it.
- For us to understand how the creative process works is not necessary for it to function. At its beginning, any piece of creation was an unformed thing. A nudge of energy and a whisper of the idea combined to create an opening for it to emerge. We really don’t know how inspiration and energy combine to reinvent one’s life or any other creative activity. Origins arise in the mysterious realms beyond human understanding. It’s just the nature of things for potential to move toward form. A truth to remember: Gratitude for creativity provides a powerful boost to its flow.
- Despite the fact that creativity is mysterious, it’s as common as breathing. The movement of energy and intelligence toward form is an eternal ongoing process, as effortless and natural as the singing of a brook, scratching an itch, or the emergence of a Universe from absolutely nothing. Creative flow happens all the time. It is happening right now. In fact, NOW is the only moment creative flow or anything else ever happens.
- Peter Jemison’s above quote suggests that we don’t create an idea; it’s our job to notice its arrival. Neither do we control its flow through us. Instead, we yield to it, becoming its instrument. My creative experiences invariably unfold as Jemison described. The books, classes, talks, and now blog, truly feel like gifts, and my job has been to bid them welcome, be grateful for them, and follow where they lead. Creative people are shepherds of something that arose deep within them but did not originate there. It feels like my soul brought with it into this life as Foster, the potential for creative experiences in support of its own evolution. Their flow was activated whenever life had sufficiently prepared me.
- At a workshop I attended a few years back, the speaker quoted the response of a Potawatomi tribal elder when he was asked to describe an educated person. He said, “An educated person is one who knows their gifts, and how to give them away.” Indeed, I believe our creative gifts are meant to be given away. Hiding or hoarding them blesses no one. The opportunity to bless the world is why they were given to us in the first place.
- There is a still, small voice within every person that is meant to guide and inspire them. Hearing your inner voice is almost entirely a matter of learning to be quiet inside and listen. As you seek your pathway of service to the world, doors open as life prepares you. The key is to trust and accept your creative gifts — and then give them away. Sharing yourself with the world carries its own rewards.
Love, peace, and blessings to all.
How Can We Find Faith in Today’s World?
"Faith is an oasis in the heart
which will never be reached
by the caravan of thinking.”
— Kahlil Gibran
The Earth School has always been a challenging place for souls to incarnate, so circumstances have never been easy here on Earth. But today we seem to find ourselves in desperate times; way over our collective heads in challenges far beyond our capacities. So, today our title question is at least as difficult as it has ever been in our sojourn as a species. To make things even more complex, Gibran’s eloquent statement says faith lies beyond the processes of human thought. Similarly, an online dictionary defines faith as “a confident belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence” (Merriman and Webster, my italics). So, we must face the truth that our usual mental processes are not capable of guiding our pathway through our mess or our quest for faith.
A few decades ago when I was young, life felt very different. My generation grew up in an exceptional time. A post-war euphoria erupted after the hell of WWII, ushering in a rare period of unbridled optimism and cooperation; anything seemed possible. Our parents were deeply engaged in building a bright future for their families, while the world’s governments were cooperating in the hard work of restoring the world. People carried strong hope that life would be beautiful for generations to come, maybe forever.
As human history would suggest, it didn’t take long for optimism to die. The post-WWII euphoria crashed in November 1963 when JFK was assassinated, less than twenty years after the war ended. Only five years later, after winning the 1968 CA presidential primary, JFK’s brother Robert, his apparent political and ideological heir, was also assassinated. This followed M. L. King Jr’s assassination in March of the same year. All three assassinations were accompanied by shock and disbelief, along with deep disillusionment rooted in our government’s astoundingly inept investigations. To many, the whole series smelled like an inside operation involving powerful men deep within our own government, followed by a clumsy FBI cover-up that was completely out of character with their reputation for thorough investigations. Along with the hope and positive events toward racial equality, the 1960s were a remarkably ugly period that shattered America’s dreams of a bright future. From that time forward, trust in government has absolutely tanked. Our capacity to trust each other shrank in proportion. Today the USA is a deeply divided, struggling society, where it seems nobody dares to trust anybody beyond close family and friends. Sadly, this seems to be our hellish new normal.
Even with all that bad news, the lot of humanity appeared to drop even lower this past February when Russia invaded Ukraine, plunging Europe into a brutal war that has shaken the entire world. It seems like Planet Earth and all life found here are being sucked into a vortex of self-annihilation, with ecological and societal collapse just around the corner! The world outside ourselves is almost impossible to ignore, and that’s okay. Human suffering is not meant to be ignored. Even though it’s hard to feel anything other than discouraged and powerless, we are invited to open our eyes and see these circumstances as our teacher. We are being reminded to look deep within our own being to find the faith, peace, and comfort that are missing in the outer world. Please consider again the definition of faith in the first paragraph. Faith can’t be anchored in circumstances. Faith comes in spite of them, a gift from the infinite realms of the Divine. Then, how can we find inner peace and accept the gift of faith?
In the Gospel of Mark, 9:17-29 the writer describes the healing of an epileptic youth brought by his father to Jesus. Jesus tells the man, “If you can believe, everything is possible for him who believes. And immediately the father called out weeping and said, I do believe, help my little faith.” Mark 9: 23-24 (Lamsa). The next few verses describe the son’s healing. Clearly, the Christ is saying that faith is an act of belief, completely independent of the circumstances at hand.
The only place I have ever found that belief/faith/inner peace is deep within myself. The same is true for everyone — the doorway to everything we seek is deep within our own being. When we forget and focus on the world of duality all around us, we find ourselves swamped by difficulties beyond our human capacities. The key point: Our answers can be found by listening deep within our own being. So, when you feel desperate and disconnected from life, give yourself the time to go within and just listen. Take all the time you need.
Love and blessings to all!
[Note: Our second blog this month (8/15) will consider how we can cooperate with this Inner Source and respond to Its gifts of peace, guidance, inspiration, and faith.]
The Power of Prayer
I celebrated my 80th birthday on July 7th and took an unvarnished look at this latest life “mile marker”. It is clear that some of my physical capacities, particularly strength and stamina have been slowly declining. But I refuse to accept the common cultural belief that aging is inevitably accompanied by declining value to the world. The title of this blog brings optimism that placing more emphasis on inner work like prayer, meditation, and contemplation will actually increase our effectiveness and power for good in the world. The following affirmation reflects my belief about aging: “As a brand-new octogenarian, I remain committed to love all creation and serve the world with power and grace.” Because God is always present, prayer is a perfect tool for this time of life; unbounded in its availability and power. The effectiveness of our prayers can only be weakened if we allow our belief in their power to falter.
Like most folks, my understanding of prayer has evolved and matured over the decades. In addition to the requests and thanks that comprised my prayers of yesteryear, today I see acts or thoughts intended to bless others as prayers. Even though such prayers may sometimes seem small, they can nonetheless hold great meaning. For example, taking a moment to share your gratitude with the high-school student, or special needs person who bags your groceries is an act of love. Even feeling such emotions is a prayer. Prayer is first and foremost allowing divine love to flow through us into the world. Please keep in mind that love was never intended to be shared only with family and friends, or even all our fellow humans. From God’s perspective, all creation is the flow of love. And we are invited to participate in that flow by sharing our love with each other and all creation. That’s why we’re here on Earth!
For love and gratitude to flow freely through us into the world, it helps immensely if we trust that life actually works as Jesus described; all our needs are met as the need arises. It is important to accept that it really is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom; nothing we need is held back (Luke 12:32). When we accept that, there is no reason to dilute or clutter our prayers with self-concerns and requests, because we have none.
Recently my prayers have taken a turn that may seem radical, or even disloyal to some. Like many, I have felt hopeless in the face of world events. How can I possibly have any helpful impact on things like Russia’s vicious war to subjugate Ukraine, societal violence, unbridled greed ravaging the halls of capitalism, and the many other contentious divisions in modern culture? We appear to be separated into groups with beliefs so far apart the capacity to understand, trust, or even communicate across the gaps has vanished. Our nation and the modern world seem to perfectly fit Jesus’ warning: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”, Mark 3: 24. Today, it doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say the very existence of humanity and much of earthly creation is at stake.
To date, my best response to today’s world is to repeat the next to last sentence in the first paragraph above: Because God is always present, prayer is a perfect tool at this time of life; unbounded in its availability and power. How might you choose to use this power to serve the world?
As shocking as it may seem to some, I have been doing my best to intentionally send love to Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin. I think of his heart as hardened by isolation, loneliness, fear, narcissism, and bitterness over his perception of Russia’s lost influence and power in the world. I think of sending love to him as planting seeds of love in his heart with the hope that they will eventually bloom and offer him a pathway to self-redemption and world peace. The odds feel infinitesimal at best, but I pray for him anyway. My prayer is more about who I am being than what Putin is doing. I suppose the real question is, “Can I love Putin regardless of his actions?” For Jesus, the answer to such questions was always yes. Can I stretch myself that far into the unconditional realms of love? It remains to be seen. I am just beginning this phase of spiritual growth and feel like I’m in kindergarten. But, if I am to fully embody Christ’s teachings about love, it is not my place to choose where love flows in this world. Like the rain and sunshine, love is freely given to all.
Will you join me in sending love to the situations, people, and places in the world that seem to most desperately in need of it? Why not pick one, try praying/sending love, and see how it makes you feel. Is it better than feeling hopeless and powerless? As we move forward, you might want to anchor your belief in one of my favorite affirmations: “Love prevails!”. It helps me feel hopeful, and that’s really nice for a change.
Love and Blessings to all!