A State of Constant Resolution

Q: How can freedom and responsibility go together? A: You have to think about enlightenment as a state of constant resolution —then you'll understand how these apparent opposites are completely related to one another. If you want to be free, you must aspire to always live in a state of resolution, an orientation to life where nothing important is left unresolved, especially when it comes to being responsible for yourself and the consequences of your actions in the world. Indeed, you discover that your freedom is completely dependent upon that. If you want to be free more than anything else, then responsibility, instead of being perceived as a burden, is now recognized to be the very ground of your own liberation, the door to the experience of lightness of being. —Andrew Cohen

Inward Solitude

"Amma Syncletica said, 'Many live on the mountains
and behave as if they were living amidst the uproar
of a city, and they are lost. It is possible while
living amongst a crowd to be inwardly solitary, and
while living alone to be inwardly beset by the crowd.'"

- "Sayings of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers),
" Syncletica -

The Way to Peace

Come back home and return today to the state of peace. You will not fail when you realign yourself with the truth within. The choice for Heaven is presented before you in every moment. Every one of the ego’s illusionary ideas, every judgment, thought of anger and revenge that chain you to its world will immediately be broken when in the moment you choose to value peace more then pain. Bless the world you once blamed and you are set free from it. Every iron bar that held you prisoner in it will melt away when you choose to free yourself and your brother and sister from their mistakes. Today cross that bridge that leads to peace by doing the opposite of what has not worked for you. Today, instead of continuing to support and sacrifice your time and energy on what has not worked for you, make the conscious choice to value forgiveness more then judgment, compassion more then condemnation, and peace more than pain.

James Blanchard Cisneros

Symptoms of Awakening

Love

Love means to look at yourself
the way one looks at distant things
for you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
without knowing it, from various ills--
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.

Then he wants to use himself and things
so that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn't matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn't always understand.

~Czeslaw Milosz

Passionat Attachment

If you wish to find out whether you are addicted to
the passion of gluttony (or any other, for that matter),
you can find it out in the following manner. If food
(or anything else) captures your thought so that you
cannot resist it, you are a glutton. If you are not
possessed by it and partake freely of all kinds of
food to the extent your body requires it, you are not
a glutton. . . passionate attachment to anything should
always be avoided, for it does harm to the soul.

- St. Barsanuphius -

One Step Away

Liberation that wonderful word of freedom,
that word of leaving burdens behind, of
moving on to be things that you never were.

Stepping into the light as a completion, rather
than an unfinished and damaged weight on the world.

Shedding years of missteps and decay, liberating
to do and be that which you shine into.

Liberation is a gift that is offered to those
who strip out all of the weight of their past
decisions and chose the light that is one step
outside of themselves, one step away from pain
and decay.

One step.

Sam Roberts

Moving Toward God

The many contradictions in our lives - such as
being home while feeling homeless, being busy
while feeling bored, being popular while feeling
lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts
- can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage
us. They make us feel that we are never fully
present. Every door that opens for us makes us
see how many more doors are closed.

But there is another response. These same
contradictions can bring us into touch with a
deeper longing for the fulfillment of a desire
that lives beneath all desires and that only
God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood,
create the friction that can help us move toward
God.

- Bread for the Journey, by Henri Nouwen -

Time enough?

Time gently flutters against the backdrop of our lives
Seducing us into thinking that there is still time
To right the wrongs in the world
To forgive and be forgiven
To love and be loved
To learn and to teach

To give and receive joy
To see and create beauty
To listen and to be heard
To hold and to be held
To enforce and keep peace
But it is only an illusion, a manmade concept.
Because, in truth, the only time we have is now.

 

~Karla Clark

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

A gift is freely given, and expects no return.
Its reason is love. What is first given is love;
that is the first gift. The Holy Spirit comes
forth as the substance of love, and GIFT is His
proper name."

- St. Thomas Aquinas [13th C],
"Summa Theologica," 1, 38, 2 -

(God's love and Spirit are gift to us. Open your
mind and heart to receive God's gifts this day.)

I Thank You God

...

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~e. e. cummings

Peace

If you desire a greater sense of peace in your life, start with focusing not on your outer world, but on your inner world. It is not your circumstances, relationship, workplace, nor anything outside of you that is weighing you down; it is your negative/stressful/fearful thoughts and feelings about them that are weighing you down. And there is a huge difference in that statement. The power to change lies within you, not outside of you. Work within the mind to make peace your primary goal for more and more of your daily activities, as you begin to change the focus of your inner environment your external environment will begin to shift in support of this effort

James Blanchard Cisneros
 

Watch Over Yourself

I [God] can love you more than you can love
yourself and I watch over you a thousand times
more carefully than you can watch over yourself.

- St. Catherine of Siena

Everyone is our teacher.

Every person you meet is a mirror of you, an external projection of your inner condition. They are offering you the opportunity to see your mind, the internal world you are silently supporting be reflected outward into the physical world. This process allows you to shine a light on your belief system and thus be able to more easily see, understand, and work on it if you so desire. For example, if you desire a peaceful life but somewhere anger is hiding, masquerading as a productive tool within your mind, your brother or sister will assist you by “doing something” to bring this emotion and response out of you and into your physical experience in order to help you recognize and acknowledge that anger is indeed something you are truly supporting. This physical experience then becomes the catalyst to find more peaceful internal solutions to the external environment. This is your brothers and sisters great gift to you, and why gratitude should always be your response to them.

James Blanchard Cisneros

 

Remembering

The more we choose to judge an individual or situation, the more that individual or situation will consume us. The more we judge a brother, sister, or situation, the less joy we will experience in our life. Judgment consumes joy, and joy dissolves judgment, in the moment we can have one or the other but not both. Each day is made up of only so many moments. In every one of these moments we have a choice, to support either thoughts of judgment or of joy. The one we value most in any situation is the one we will end up supporting. And so it is us who will make the final choice on what kind of day, and thus, what kind of life we will end up having. Today, recall the gift of free will that you have been given, and when the ego once again cries out for judgment, instead choose to make the conscious choice for joy.

James Blanchard Cisneros
Author of You Have Chosen to Remember

Source of Mutual Suffering?

It is impossible for two people to live
together without being a source of mutual
suffering, and as we cause others to suffer,
it is but just that we should bear with their
failings also, and such a burden is light since
Jesus Christ helps us to carry it.

Do not therefore be so lacking in sense,
so unreasonable and so unchristian as to pretend
that you should not have to suffer anything from
your Brothers and Sisters. This would be truly
asking a most unheard of and extraordinary miracle.
Do not expect to see such a thing during the whole of
your life.

- St. John Baptist de La Salle -

Balance

Prior to the big bang there was Nothing, and from that primordial empty ground the entire cosmos burst into existence. When we enter into deep states of meditation, transcending the personal ego and any notion of a separate self, we sink into that same primordial ground. In those moments, of course, we will experience peace, because that is the very nature of that infinite depth beyond time and form. And such experiences are indeed very liberating for the self. But it just doesn't make sense that the experience of relief and release from the very process that produced us should be the goal of the luckiest people who have ever been born. Why not? Because the very energy and intelligence that gave us life, that produced us, needs us lucky ones to take responsibility, to wholeheartedly participate in the life process in a deeper and more authentic way than most of us ever imagined possible.

—Andrew Cohen

I Give Myself to Thee

Make me what Thou wouldst have me. I bargain
for nothing. I make no terms. I seek for no
previous information whither Thou art taking me.
I will be what Thou wilt make me, and all that
Thou wilt make me. I say not, I will follow
Thee whithersoever Thou goest, for I am weak,
but I give myself to Thee, to lead me any
where.

- John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890),
Parochial Sermons, v. V

Flow

"Love says,
     'I am everything.'

Wisdom says,
     'I am nothing.'

Between the two,
     my life flows."

~Nisargadatta Maharaj
    

Choosing to Remember

What brings you peace of mind and joy, your kindness, passion and compassion, your ability for patience and forgiveness are all extensions of the energy of love. As you allow love to fill more aspects of your life, the truth of who you are will become clearer. The more you are able to express, extend, and experience love in whatever ways are available to you and in alignment with your present values, the more you will be able to uncover, see, and understand the purpose of your visit and mission here.

James Blanchard Cisneros

Proper Teaching is Recognized

Much that was called religion has carried an
unconscious attitude of hostility toward life.
True religion must teach that life is filled
with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that
knowledge without action is empty. All must
see that the teaching of religion by rules and
rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is
recognized with ease. You can know it without
fail because it awakens within you the sensation
which tells you this is something you have
always known.

- The Orange Catholic Bible Commentaries -

Earth Laboratory

The experience of living on earth is a laboratory--we get to experience and experiment with many things while we live here. Among them, we get to experience a real knowledge of light and darkness, the relationship between good and evil, and the possibility of knowing and embodying elements (qualities) from a higher realm. In addition, we experiment with acts of self-giving (self-sacrifice) and the play of love. We experience the growth and evolution of our own consciousness into wider and wider states of awareness (or the lack of such growth). We begin to know and acknowledge our true Self and the Presences which hold, guide and teach us here. 

All of these take place in the laboratory of our own lives and inside our own beings, and are woven into the narrative of our journeys as we traverse space and time. We get to do these things while we live here. It is a sharp learning curve, but it is also a privilege. 

Damage and Debris of a Lifetime

As prayer becomes more intimate, grace reaches down
into the depths of our psyche, empowering it to unload
the emotional damage and debris of a lifetime. In
time we will make the transition from going to God
through reason and particular acts of the will to
going to him more directly through the intuitive
faculties. Then God will relate to us through them
instead of through the external senses, memory,
imagination, reasoning, and acts of the will.

- Thomas Keating, Invitation to Love

We Can't Go Back

 

We're all living in a very special time-a time when profound evolutionary development can be felt and seen more palpably and more tangibly than ever before. In fact, the rate of change today is moving so quickly, it is, more often than not, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually overwhelming. But we can't go back. In fact, there's nowhere to go back to. The simpler world that we may yearn to return to simply doesn't exist anymore. I think the real issue at hand is whether we are morally, intellectually, philosophically, and spiritually prepared not only to not resist the momentum that we're already being carried by, but more importantly, to actually take responsibility for it. I passionately believe that this is the great spiritual challenge at hand for all of us. Whether it's a task we'll be able to meet, I don't know. But I've devoted my life to awakening in as many people as possible a wholehearted desire to try.

—Andrew Cohen

Grasping God

God is not an object and neither is He an object of
knowledge. He is a source of illuminatory and revelatory
grace. He cannot be grasped, but He can certainly
reveal himself.

Meditations on the Tarot, The Lover, pg. 134

Invisible Bee

Here is a poetic arrangement inspired by the seeing of Rumi:

Look how desire and longing have changed in you.
Overtime feel how light these have become,
   even transparent.
And because of your inner changing, look how the world around you
   is growing ever new marvels. 
You see, your soul has become an invisible bee.
You don't see it working, but it is busy storing up honey
   filling the honeycomb full,
   and rising through the nine levels of being.
And your body--that 5-6 feet or so--is like a corked barrel
   full of the vineyard's oldest wine.
When we see you now, it is not so much your physical form
   that we are seeing, but the company of the two companions
   who are with you:
      --the pure inner fire of your longing,
      --and the love you have for the Friend who teaches you.
And we also see the company of the blazing sun,
   and the soft reflective moon
   keeping pace on foot behind you. 

Hidden Inside

The Creator gathered all of creation and said, 'I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality.' The eagle said, 'Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.' The Creator said, 'No one day they will go there and find it.' The salmon said, 'I will hide it on the bottom of the ocean.' 'No, they will go there too.' The buffalo said, 'I will bury it on the great plains.' The Creator said, 'They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it.' Then Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said: 'Put it inside them.' And the Creator said, 'It is done.'

- Sioux Legend

Performing the Work

Abba Poimen said, 'If three people meet and one
of them is keeping inner peace, the second is
giving thanks to God in sickness, the third is
serving others from an unselfish motive, those
three are performing the same work.

- Sayings of the Desert Fathers -