Lurking Sacred Cows

Have you an open mind? Invariably the answer to this query is “of course.” Often however it is not the case. To have an open mind requires work and diligence. On any issue which interests us we must spend time studying all aspects dispassionately, to the point where we could intelligently discuss all aspects, not just the parts we agree with. If we choose not to do this our point of view is skewed, for it lacks any systematic or logical course of study, becoming emotion based versus fact based. To wit:

In the 1970’s I was a member of the Futurist Society. Futurists make predictions based on what is deemed the best verifiable evidence extrapolated logically. I accepted their pronouncements at face value (blind trust), since they had studied and researched the issues (I believed at the time) systematically at depth. I looked forward to the arrival of each issue for one particular writer whose articles were always well written and interesting. The new issue arrived, and I attempted to read some of the other articles first, a little delayed gratification, but soon turned to my favorite author. With a smile on my face I began reading. When finished I felt unsettled. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was lurking in the back of my mind. So after about a week of ruminating I went to the library to do some research. Firing up the microfiche (remember microfiche and cabinets filled with microfilm) I located the statistics I was looking for and there was the problem. The author had reversed the stats that supported his position! I felt relieved and a little proud. I reasoned that some underling had provided the stats to the author incorrectly and a correction would be forth coming. The next issue arrived however, and nothing was mentioned. I surmised that by the time he became aware it was too late for this issue but would certainly be in the next. Well, he did address it in the next issue. The response was one of the most over the top, vitriolic pieces of junk I, to this day, have ever read. Not only did he defend his position and facts, anyone who disagreed with him was an idiot! I was left stunned and breathless. I rechecked the stats to see if I misread them. Nope. A sacred cow died that day.

Spiritually, sacred cows are everywhere. Many are inherited, some have quietly strolled in and we have not bothered to do the work to turn them out, usually because if we do we are afraid of what we will find when they are gone, for like all cows, sacred cows are notoriously poor house keepers. Living on the Spiritual Basis we must not be afraid to ask questions and seek the truth, since: the truth will set you free. Trust, but verify.

I didn’t renew my membership in the Futurists Society. Beware sacred cows.
Miracles Of Recovery     © Vincent Lee Jones All Rights Reserved Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab, #Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

Lip Service

We have been busy living our life, so busy we have done little to demonstrate the beliefs we pay lip service too. Is it then really any surprise when we fail to demonstrate spiritually when faced with life’s inevitable difficulties and challenges? Once again, reaping and sowing in action. No real crop (daily prayer and meditation, selfless service) was ever earnestly planted and now winter (trouble) has arrived and the cupboard is bare and the Universe isn’t a fast food restaurant where if you have a credit card you can get your sustenance on the promise of future payment.

The promise of prayer and good works tomorrow is meaningless towards our demonstration today.Faith without works is dead.

So, we must start today to plant the crop we wish to harvest, stocking our cupboard for the inevitable winter days that come for all. To be clear: We cannot live off of yesterday’s demonstration, for in truth our cupboard is stocked with the reality of our relationship with and to God and our fellows: that by doing HIS work well TODAY (the only time we can stand in the presence of God, the only time God can be present for us, is in the present moment, the past written, the future the ink in the pen), all our future needs will be met.

Therefore, just for today Practice the Presence of God in every area of life. Salute the spark of the Divine in all you meet, liking or agreeing with them immaterial. Forgive. Meet the world with a smile so those who hunger for the Good News can be filled by your presence. Set aside a definite time for meditation. Pray throughout your day and keep them simple, from the heart, no need to filibuster, remembering prayers of thanks given hold great weight. Do something nice for someone (particularly strangers) and don’t get caught or tell anyone about it. By planting and nurturing this crop daily, we will never hunger, our cupboard always full, this daily demonstration of a Power Greater Than Ourselves at work in our lives allowing us to meet seeming calamity with serenity, setting us free from the fear driven life.   Miracles Of Recovery    © Vincent Lee Jones All Rights Reserved Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab, #Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

The Biggest Fool

To recognize failure intelligently is the first step toward building success.
We all fail, often. The question is do we profit from the experience or reflect morbidly on it?

We can have anything in life that we really want, but we must be prepared to take the responsibilities that go with it.
Why do so many desire success spiritually but fail to demonstrate? The Great Universal Mind, God, knows if we are prepared and cannot, will not ever bring anything into our life that will overwhelm or harm us. So our success is determined by our preparation.

The Universe is ready the moment we are.
Who would try to run a marathon without first training or fly a plane with no prior instruction, yet spiritually many, if not most, expect The Universe to deliver just because they asked, essentially asking to win the race while promising to train afterwards. Our responsibility then is to consistently train ourselves to see the Great Reality within all, recognizing all are connected in Spirit, no one beyond the pale, all deserving of the chance to grow in awareness regardless of the past or current circumstances, in this way we prepare ourselves for success.  

The biggest fool of all is the man who bothers about outer things and neglects his own consciousness. If we have no time for prayer and meditation, we will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.
Toward the end of the movie Tombstone, Doc Holliday is receiving last rites from a Catholic priest as Wyatt Earp walks in. Doc comments to Wyatt “I was just investigating the mysteries of the Church of Rome. It appears my hypocrisies know no bounds.” Hypocrisy had little to do with it. We all chose the course of our lives, many however putting off to tomorrow their “investigation.”  For Doc Holliday, at least in this movie, better late than never but since most of us cannot rely on cards and a quick gun hand for our source and security, ultimately failing Doc in the end as he faced the inevitable, we chose the sure bet to truly succeed: to Practice the Presence of God daily through prayer, meditation and selfless service.
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Becoming Responsible

There have been times in our lives, especially when we were young, when we thought we were “ready”, possessing enough experience and knowledge to tackle the next step, often rushing headlong with little or no real thought or comprehension of consequences, only to find that a little, or a lot, more seasoning was needed. Typically, this discovery happened after we were up to our necks. No? How about that promotion you thought you were ready for, so many want to be the “Boss”, in charge, until the true nature of responsibility and accountability settles in with a thud. If you are like me, I look back and cringe at some of my “management” decisions from those early days of being a “boss.” Fortunately, I had wise mentors who guided through those early missteps. Or how about that home improvement project languishing that looked so easy on TV or YouTube? Plumbing, carpentry, tile setting, etc. I mean, how hard could it be, right? We soon found out. Not to mention, but I suppose I am, when we were young and so sure we were ready for the world, to be “responsible”, grown up. When our children pass through those years all we can do is suggest, somewhat wistfully, they slow down and enjoy the time, since once we truly become responsible that horse has left the barn and will never return. Unfortunately, they will probably listen as well as we did.

Spiritually though it is impossible to demonstrate beyond ones understanding. Many have tried and great has been the fall. Conversely as we grow in spiritual understanding new horizons and opportunities naturally unfold. Truly the keys to the kingdom are in our hands, the timing ours. Choosing to grow day by day in understanding, raising our consciousness a day at a time, we embrace the Truth of Being: that we are all timeless children of the Great Creative Lifeforce, connected to everyone and everything, awakening available to all, regardless of our present circumstances. All that is required is an open heart, an open mind and willingness.
So, just for today, pray gently and meditate on love; consistently seeking spiritual guidance from the voice of Creation within us all, remembering the Miraculous will never ask more of us than we are spiritually prepared to handle for God wants each of us, all of us, to be happy, joyous and free. Oh, and when your “responsible” teenager asks for the keys to the car try to avoid dwelling on the “responsible” things you did in your parent’s car as soon as you were out of sight.
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Losing Weight

Do you know anyone who has “tried everything” but has failed to manifest much success? Some of the obvious “everythings” are: “I’ve tried to diet but nothing works for me”, “I exercise but nothing seems to happen” and the classic: “I just don’t have the time to: cook, exercise, study, etc.” In truth, every diet works if it is truly adhered too and we always find the time for the things we really want to do. Now, the previous examples may be troublesome, but they only set the stage for the truly destructive: “I have read spiritual books but how do I know if it will work for me” and “I’ve prayed but nothing happens, so either God is punishing me, doesn’t care or isn’t there.”

In truth: “Faith without works is dead” and the work must be consistent and positive. Picture a perpetual bricklayer toiling to build a wall who then takes a sledgehammer to it at the end of each day, then laments his poor wall and the lack of any real progress. By inviting the Miraculous in and then slamming the door in its face, dialing the number and hanging up as soon as the connection is made, is it any wonder so many fail to demonstrate? To grow in understanding and awareness we must surrender the yeah buts, the shoulda, coulda, wouldas, the contempt prior to investigation and all the other bulwarks of self-centered fear that justifies in our consciousness the use of those rhetorical sledgehammers which cripple our awakening in Spirit. Instead, pick up the bricklayer’s trowel and with consistent positive action build a relationship with God, a Power Greater Than Yourself as you understand it, through prayer, meditation and selfless service and when you find one of those sledge hammers in your hand, and you will, replace it immediately by reaffirming God’s love and light, forcing the Adversary to Serenity and growth, fear, out. Soon a wonderful spiritual structure will take shape to sustain you, those sledge hammers not forgotten but gathering dust, and oh, you might even lose a little weight.
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Not Perfect, But Free At Last

“If you have no time for prayer and meditation, you will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.” Emmet Fox. Pretty much sums it up. Having placed our feet on the path of Living on the Spiritual Basis our duty is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us, everything else secondary. We accomplish this by wholeheartedly out picturing our belief in God’s perfect love and guidance in every area of our existence, holding to the bedrock truth that God will not, cannot, ask us to do anything beyond our present reach or would sacrifice our integrity, stunt our spiritual growth or cause us pain and suffering of any kind. “We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous and free. We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it is clear that we made our own misery. God didn’t do it.”  So, we hold to God’s love, and though often trembling, stand; demonstrating the Truth of Being in prayer, meditation and service, fulfilling our duty, not perfect but free at last.

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No Sacred Cows

Sacred cows, pretty much everyone has some, the obvious ones being sports teams, political parties and religion. Ever try to talk to a Yankee fan about the Red Sox, a liberal about conservatives or a Lutheran about Catholics? Of course, the reverse is true in all examples as well, little chance of concord or common ground being achieved in any case. A “die hard” fan or true believer is not interested in anything that runs contrary to their “belief.” A while back there was a story of two baseball fans who crossed paths in a bar. Their “conversation” ending in a knifing and death, two lives and their families forever changed over meaningless sacred cows. Is it any wonder many wars have started over little more? Millions if not billions of lives, since man began keeping score, have been sacrificed at the altar of one sacred cow or another.

Write this on your heart in bold letters: NO SACRED COWS. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with rooting for a team, holding political beliefs or belonging to a religion. The error comes when we let emotions over run our common sense and we begin objectifying those we disagree with, looking “down” on them, embracing the greatest sin of all: Righteous Pride. To be clear: common sense, when one is Living on the Spiritual Basis, is the knowledge what is sacred is our relationship one to another, that we are all valued, truly children of the Miraculous. So root for your team, participate in the political process as much or as little as suits you and by all means practice your religion but never lose sight of the truly sacred: the love of “Our Father” for all His children and our sacred duty to salute the Divine in all, even if we believe they root for the wrong team.
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Parched

Often in old westerns there is a scene where the tired, dusty thirsty cowboy comes to town riding up to the horse watering trough for a drink. Now there may be “old” water in the trough, but fresh water is supplied by a hand pump.  Our cowboy is thirsty but for the first few pumps nothing happens, it is only after priming the pump, acting seemingly without demonstrating any real result for a time, that the fresh water finally appears, and his thirst is quenched. What if he had stopped pumping after one or two strokes? He would have remained thirsty or settled for unclean water for he lost faith his actions would demonstrate the desired result.

Faith: n. 1) Belief without evidence. 2) Confidence, trust. 3) Belief in God.

Faith is believing without hard evidence, trusting in what cannot be measured or explained in secular terms. On the back of every American dollar bill it reads “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Writing it or saying it out loud does not make it so any more than watching a cooking show assuages our hunger, to be filled, action is required. Only by quietly walking in faith, often trembling, do we demonstrate our trust in the Miraculous. So work quietly but steadily; resisting struggle for struggle guarantees failure in our prayer life, we quietly demonstrate faith through our actions, for has it not been said that actions speak louder than words? By walking through life demonstrating belief, priming the pump, we are demonstrating true faith and in due course the water will flow, our spiritual thirst quenched.
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A Perfect Batting Average

Mankind’s history is replete with dozens upon dozens of boom and bust cycles. Add to that the seemingly never-ending line of prophets of doom and gloom stating with absolute certainty “the end is nigh” and there is nothing we can do about it; woe be to us. These joyless individuals have been around since man first started keeping records. The one thing they all have in common is their perfect batting average: 0. Every single one has been wrong, the world has not ended, their dire predictions not withstanding and today’s doom and gloomers are as wrong as those who stood at the center of Rome prophesying the end of days 2000 years ago.

But for fun let’s say one comes along and gets it right, now what? Let’s be clear, no matter how much we exercise, eat right or take care of ourselves, this fleshy conveyance carrying around our eternal consciousness is going to stop functioning at some point. So, the most essential question at the heart of everything is: are we this body or something more? I believe the evidence is overwhelming we are much greater than this limited flesh, so physical death as far as our True Self or Spirit is concerned really is meaningless. For in truth, we are timeless Spiritual beings experiencing the human condition as part of our enlightenment and growth, not human-beings searching for the miraculous. Our Spirit eternal, death a mere change in perception, the journey of awakening continuing, in another form, an undying journey unlimited in any manner. So, when the next “expert” delivers solemnly the latest prophecy of doom, we can smile and be of good cheer because we know the truth.

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Bound In Self

Perhaps you know someone who never misses an opportunity to retell the story of some past injustice, real or imagined perpetrated against them, Morbid Reflection on full display. If they are close to us (family), we have heard the tale so many times we know it by heart. These tales attempt to justify (at least to the teller) why they haven’t or can’t and never put behind them some incident in their lives, usually finishing the tale with a note of satisfaction in their voice. The truth is however when we hold on to past injustices and hurts, for any reason, we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. If we are to be free, we must set free all who have harmed us, leaving their final disposition to their demonstration before God, getting us out of the resentment business. To be clear: there are those who have committed grievous acts beyond the pale and they will reap as they have sown, but harboring hurt and hate in our heart stunts our growth and limits our demonstrations and forgiving does not mean forgetting. Living on the Spiritual Basis requires us to forgive but it is does not mean we ever have to place ourselves in a position to be harmed by them again.

So, we forgive all who have harmed us, setting them and ourselves free. If for some reason they do appear in our life or they are someone whom because of family or some other reason we will have to face, we ask in prayer to be shown the way of patience, kindness, tolerance and love toward them and to be kept safe and free of new resentments when in their presence. By saluting the Presence of God within them and releasing them you will be amazed by the results. Any and all hate, condemnation and resentment binds us in self, so, to state a Great Teaching once again: simple but not easy, a price has to be paid and that price is the surrendering of self.

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