The Gate

 In an amusement park the entry gate is different from the gate out, so as to keep the crowds moving.  Prayer is not like this.  There is the one gate for both in and out.  The gate in is an invitation.  The gate out is a resolution.  Going to the gate and through it is all our verbal prayers.  But once inside, as in a sheepfold, there is space for quiet, safety and rest.  It is not the place for our verbal prayers.  The sheepfold is a place for silent intimacy.  I believe God appreciates our verbal prayers and recitation of psalms, but at some point, I believe that God would like a deeper intimacy wherein God can connect to our deeper self.  There courage resides.  Courage on the spiritual path is fed on intimate love, not fiery speeches.  It is the courage that energizes resolutions so that when we leave through the same gate, we go out to serve with love.  Love takes courage, because it is often not returned.  God knows this.  

Your Place

 If everyone says you should be doing this but you say no, you need to do that, well, who is right?  Can they all be wrong?  Sometimes.  Look at two spiritual icons, Jesus and the Buddha.  Everyone thought that the sitting under a bodhi tree or being crucified was crazy.  Everyone but Jesus and the Buddha.  But they were spiritual giants.  Are you?  Every time that I went against the trend of others, and I was wrong, it was because my spiritual life and practice was shallow to say the least.  But my God saved me from myself, my self-centered decisions, and I ended up way better than if I were on my own.  So I know that I have to stay in touch at some deep level with my “Savior” if I am not to get lost in trying to do it on my own.  

Going Deep

 I suppose if you believe there is no God, Power, infinite Source, then emptying the Mind might be the purpose of deep meditation.  I am not so sure my mind ever gets empty.  Rather I might become unaware of random thoughts.  Since I believe in an Infinite Source I believe that there is an intimate union, One that is transcendent, and ultimately a sense of Union with this Power that is not me.  And when it becomes Love, there is only Union.  I believe in this Power because for a few people this sense of Oneness and Love can come without any practice.  Just read the Bill Wilson experience, the co-founder of AA.  Love is always a gift.  

Your Stuff

 Are you an adventurer or a watchman?  As someone said, it depends on how much stuff you have.  Too much stuff and you become a watchman.  With sufficiently less stuff, you can travel lightly and become an adventurer.  I still have a lot of stuff.  But working on it.  And I cannot take it all with me when I make the ultimate journey.

Relecture

 When you take an old text and reinterpret it according to changing times and events, it is called “Relecture.”  New Testament writers did it with Old Testament text.  The old is correct but expanded or deepened in terms of new events.  Bill Wilson wrote the Big Book in 1939.  It is correct for its time, but new information comes along about addiction and people expand their original understanding.  New research gives deeper information.  Social relationships have changed and so on.  It is not about right and wrong, but about expanding in a reinterpretation.  

Clingers

 god does not seem to like clinging people, but rather ones who pass on an experience.  The story of two people walking away from the debacle of their leader, executed back in town, are talking about what happened.  Suddenly the leader, not quite as dead as they thought, appears to them but they don’t recognize him.  As they walk along, he passes on wisdom to them, and then eat with them.  In the meal event they recognize him, and in that instant he disappears.  He did not want them to cling to him.  So they ran back to town and passed on what had happened to them.  Kind of like a Recovery situation o evangelization, whatever you call it.  

Forgotten. Memory

I go to Sea Ranch, California for holiday/retreat with my sister Jane each year.  We go to the same house each year.  When I get there, I suffer from “forgotten memories.”  There is something that can be done, or needs to be done, but I have forgotten how to do it.  Example: I know the overheard fan works but what switch turns it on?  Don’t we recycle food wastes?  But what is the process?  There is the gizmo for the tv, but which is it?  And so on.  In time it all comes back.  Forgotten memories build patience, acceptance and in time wisdom.