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Making Sacred – Sacrifice

7/26/2013

In Webster’s dictionary we find the root meaning of the word sacrifice. It is “to make sacred.”

So just how do we make things sacred? What does sacrifice really mean to us?

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity has said that the reason divine love is so slow in manifesting in our world is that we divide things up between the secular and the holy.

Have you thought about how “holy you really are? Or do you believe that there are parts of you that aren’t the least bit holy? And how could you make all things sacred — everything within you? Is this even possible?

Well, I believe it is, because in truth there is only one – not two. It’s all God. Maybe appearances are deceiving, as Jesus has said.

Dr. Jean Houston laughingly said we have to have a lot of holes in us to be holy.

These holes are the beliefs that are not investigated to see where they come from and where they are headed. They are like pockets within us where there is no light — just unexamined thought systems. But they still produce after their kind, whether we are aware of them or not. We just wonder why things continue to be so hurtful.

When beliefs are closed up tight in these pockets there is no space for God to work.

For instance, do you think you can manage many things quite well on your own, and the rest you’ll give to God — things you know you can’t manage, such as your death?

It is in these kinds of areas where we divide our mind into that which is ours, and that which is God’s. And then we worry about everything that we don’t give to God.

We have tried to do the impossible, divide up the oneness of God.

As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that been working for you?”

It takes deep humility to recognize how sacred everything really is. It’s all God, for there is only One Presence and One Power that is evolving our world.

This is truly a sacred energy field.

It is so subtle that all thoughts, when nurtured, ripen, just as seeds do.

Our life is filled with these seed thoughts that have ripened.

We are like the farmer that Jesus spoke of who planted seeds that grew according to the fertility of the soil — how it was aerated and weeded. Were the stones and rocks removed? How much effort was taken to prepare the soil?

This is how we make sacred, for our mind is like that field.

I have found it very helpful to use a practice called an equanimity practice. I do my best to be present to all that is happening within me — all that is ripening. As I do this in a non judgmental way, I am planting new seeds which in due season will produce a more harmonious life. New insights arise.

It takes my willingness to be truly present to all the diverse thoughts and emotions that want to take over my mind. This requires awareness which can be effortful.

One of the phrases I have learned in the practice of equanimity is:

“This is how it is for me, right now.”

This causes me to honestly become aware of the fears, impatience and desire to have things change that run through my mind.

My mind is my sacred field and I need to take care of my thoughts and emotions. I need to watch what I am planting, for it will grow.

I take time to simply be aware. I practice watching my mind. I never perfect this, I just practice. I rely on God’s grace to perfect all that is.

I do my best to pay attention, for attention is the energy of love.

Charles Fillmore tells us in Keep A True Lent, that love, as it is poured out from us, dissolves anything unlike itself. I have faith in this process.

It is my experience that as I recognize how sacred the energy of love is, I feel more harmony and beauty in my life.

This is what I call making sacred.

If you desire to find out more about this practice, join us on Mondays at 5:30 pm at the Friend’s Church, 4312 SE Stark St. Portland, OR.

Please enjoy your life. It is a valuable gift. It is truly sacred, for you are God’s Holy child.

Be kind to yourself, and to others.

-Rev. Billie

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Breaking Open

7/24/2013

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A Hasidic story tells of a rabbi scholar who was questioned by a student why the Jewish people had been subjected to pogams and abuses so often over the years, and why their hearts were continually being broken.

The rabbi answered:

“Our hearts must break open so the light can get out.”

When we are hurt and betrayed it is human to develop a protective wall around our hearts. We are deeply wounded. Being afraid of getting hurt again, we do our best to defend ourselves.

So, we build defense systems — walls around our hearts — so that no one can get to us again. We feel too small to cope. It seems to be a protection, but what it protects us against is love. It protects us from connecting. We isolate.

This is a case of mistaken identity. Feeling isolated and separate we feel vulnerable and build walls instead of bridges.

Feeling so vulnerable why would we want a bridge? It would let the “enemy” in.

But by being isolated and self-protected, we keep our light inside. It is well guarded, doled out upon occasion when we choose.

We have forgotten our real nature— the Christ nature.

A more skillful choice is to practice Christ love. It’s always within us, for God is everywhere, always, every minute of every day. By choosing this love, we learn to open in a spirit of generosity and trust.

It is a choice.

The Christ love, or the Buddha nature, gives generously even when it has no assurance that it will get something back. Christ love does not ask for guarantees of return.

There is something so beautiful about this love, for it is an infinite power that receives as it gives. The receiving comes with the giving; it is inherently joined together. We can trust this. It is the reciprocal nature of the universe. It’s nature is generosity.

Christ love is seeded within us. It’s who we really are. But it can only express when conditions are ripe for the blossoming.

Apparently this ripeness comes about more quickly when we are broken hearted, feel the most vulnerable and the least defended.

Life puts us into these places time and again, to help us soften the self-protecting walls we have built. Love can’t express until walls come down.

Brokenness is opportunity.

Breakdown precedes breakthrough.

Today no matter how you are feeling, please know that your light is necessary for someone else. You are in a position to help others, and by doing so, you help yourself.

Are you willing to just open right where you are and let your love come forth? Can you be generous hearted with all those whom you meet? With those whom you think about?

Especially those who you have difficulty with. Here is where your real opportunity exists.

“I say to you, love your enemies, bless anyone who curses you, do good to anyone who hates you and pray for those persecute you.” Matt 5:44

Yes, it is human to want to be bitter and want to hold a grudge when we are hurt. But that attitude of mind just brings more hurt.

Do you want to be right or be free from suffering?

It is divine to give metta — lovingkindness. Perhaps you’d like to use the words the Buddha taught his disciples when they were in fear:

May you be safe

May you be happy

May you be healthy and strong

May you be at ease in your journey in life

All beings want to be happy. Give to others what you desire for yourself. You’ll find it brings rich rewards to everyone. Practice, practice, practice.

In lovingkindness,

Rev. Billie

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Proceed As Way Opens

7/21/2013

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“Proceed as way opens, and remember, it sometimes opens behind you”

Yes, there is always an open door, but not always in the direction we are headed. Sometimes we have to stop, stand still and then be willing to go wherever spirit leads us, even if it seems like the end of everything we are familiar with.

Robert Johnson speaks of this in his book, Balancing Heaven and Earth. As a young man, his ego had become inflated and on a whim he booked passage to Europe. His first night aboard ship he realized how minimal his resources were. He had very little money and knew no one in Europe. What had he done? Deflation engulfed him. He fell into despair and sobbed himself to sleep in his bunk.

The next day as he was journaling he drew a little stick figure of a man taking one step forward and sliding two steps backward, but making it to heaven anyway, because he was going in the wrong direction in the first place. pg 87

Through journaling he contacted an inner wisdom that knew more than his conscious mind. As Robert humbly opened to the insight that something higher than himself was guiding him through his deepest fears, new possibilities arose.

As he trusted this “unknown” (another name for the present moment) things occurred, people appeared and through many strange circumstances he eventually found himself enrolled in the first class that Dr. Jung taught in Zurich.

His soul work deepened and his life took an entirely new turn.

Inflation causes problems. We become inflated when we are sure of ourselves. Inflation is that strong feeling that we know how to handle things and we know what steps to take. We proceed, by not always with wisdom. It is our way, not God’s.

However, deflation follows inflation, so this is the good part. It is through deflation that we can truly become a vessel for God’s Spirit to express through. Suffering can indirectly guide us onto a new path.

“We are here to serve the Golden World, not to rule it,” says Robert Johnson.

We might answer, “Well, I don’t want to rule things, but I have this goal, you see, and I really think this is where I need to be.”

Just how much energy do we put into our goals? What is motivating us, really?

Through investigation of what drives us, we begin to be aware of our inner conversations. These are always taking place within us and go mostly unnoticed while we stay busy doing all the stuff we do. Inside us are often patterns of greed, ambition and impatience that masquerade as many other things, enticing us with worldly rewards. Looking good, mainly.

So we stay with ego goals and this keeps us distracted from what our soul work is.

Busyness is what we do to keep the suffering away, as Buddhism teaches us.

What are you really desiring? Is it universal harmony? Or self-security, or self-satisfaction? Our intentions make all the difference.

Are you here to really serve God?

This requires taking time to be still, on a daily basis, and waiting for guidance. Watch the play on the inner screen of your mind.

Standing still, waiting, and allowing universal energy to show us the way. Wow. It takes willingness, perseverance and patience.

When the wheels stop or fall off the wagon of your life, trust that God is showing you a new way. We can’t know how it will turn out, but this practice will open you to a new sense of your beauty and the wonder of the world.

Be willing to remember that the universe is always guiding you into something new and more desirable.

God never gives up on us and is always leading us into greater happiness and more harmony. Remember directed groping (one of my recent blogs)?

My meditation teacher uses this phrase: Follow dharma energy.

In order to follow, it is necessary to practice being still. Listen to the inner voice that is found below all the chatter of the mind. It has a lower volume.

A dedicated and disciplined meditation practice is vital to help us hear God’s homing device that is always beeping to us.

Jesus spoke about the sheep that listen for the shepherd’s voice.

When forward progress stops, or we feel stuck and there seems to be nothing we can do, just stand in this Holy Presence, listening deeply, and practice the truths we know. More will follow.

It’s about following, and noticing the inner pressures, the noisy chattering inside that pulls us into chaos and clamors to be heard. This is when we need to stop, be still, relax, and consciously breathe. Journal.

This brings our focus back to the spirit of God within us. It will never betray us. Wisdom will reveal our next step, and our next.

Trust the universal energy of LOVE — the one single energy that is evolving the world. It is calling you now into your destiny.

Rev. Billie

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Poem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

7/21/2013

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Hopefully you will find the reading over and over of this great poem can help you develop your faith and your patience. God is always at work in your and everyone’s life.

My blessings are with each of you!
-Rev. Billie

Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
We are, quite naturally,
impatient in everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability-----
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually –
Let them grow, let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
As though you could be today
what time (that is to say, grace and
your own good will)
will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that His hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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DIRECTED GROPING

7/11/2013

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Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit Father who developed and refined a theory of evolution that has caused the deepest scientists and philosophers of the 20th and 21st Century to follow his work, has said that one of the essential ways we evolve is through “directed groping.”

Yes, we grope. We fumble around, we struggle, not sure of where we are headed, or if what we are doing is right, but all the time we are being directed by a greater something that we can’t see.

This unseen energy is amazingly beautiful, elegant and will evolve into something higher and higher through reflective consciousness. Nothing can stop it.

Teilhard has called this unseen energy, the one single energy of the universe, love. It is his scientific conclusion that it is God love that evolves through us and as us.

What could be a more elegant way for evolution to work? God is love. It’s so simple.

Feeling confused and even fretful at times, it has been most comforting to me knowing that all my groping for answers is not totally useless. It all has a purpose. I take solace that no matter how uncertain I feel I can trust that an unseen force is guiding me.

I believe this is true for each of us. As we struggle to find answers to both the large and small questions in life—how to get along with others, what to do, how we’ll be supported, what will happen to us when we die—what matters most to me is knowing a loving hand is gently helping us find answers that bring forth beautiful results.

This Higher Power will never force. We must submit to this power willingly.

Every mistake will be used for good. Every tear we shed will be integrated into this field of energy in which we live and move and have our being. It all serves as grist for the mill.

When I consider this great truth I breathe a sigh of relief! For I feel certain I have made a huge amount of mistakes. Or, perhaps I’ve done the right thing, but for the wrong reasons, which is also a mistake.

Yet somehow I’m still here, and even experience some sublime moments in life when I’m certain I’m not alone and can trust the Higher Power to lead me.

I keep remembering I can’t see well enough to judge correctly. I can make decisions but I don’t control the results. I just grope!

I can only hope my choices don’t cause harm to myself or others.

“Do the thing and notice what happens, but leave the results to God,” as Gandhi has wisely taught.

And as Einstein reflected. “If God plays dice with us his dice are loaded.”

How much more enjoyable it is to live knowing that with all the groping we humans do, there is an unseen hand that subtly and silently guides us and eventually causes everything to serve that which is higher. Nothing is wasted. We are safe in God.

This is unconditional love! This is our true security.

So relax. You don’t have the final say. It’s all a work in progress and God is leading you into a greater experience of life through subtle and sublime ways. Just open to this possibility.

-Rev. Billie

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HOMECOMING

7/10/2013

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Our lives begin to simplify when we are willing to enter the heart of the matter. Distraction about the many things we think are ours to be and do keep us away from the deep enjoyment and peace that comes from living from our center, our true home.

We fall out of our center each time we feel envy of those who seem to have it better than ourselves, or when we are angry or greedy, wanting more and more. In those times we lose our footing.

Peter must have felt something like this when he came to Jesus and asked what John was to do, rather than focusing on the tasks Jesus had given him.

Jesus answer to Peter has always hit me right in my heart:

“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”    John 21:22.

How often I have gotten off course, worrying about what is happening in the lives of others. I worry that I have been left out where others seem to be getting away with something that I can’t do or have. Then I grumble and feel resentful.

When others say unkind or untrue things about me I have a similar reaction.

Again Jesus’ words come to me. “What is that to you? Follow thou me.”

Then I inquire of myself, “Are you tending your own garden? Are you taking care of what you need to do, Billie? Better refocus.”

So I do my best, over and over, to bring myself back to what is mine to do. My job is not to run other’s lives or control their reactions. Darn.

My task is right here. How am I taking care of myself, attending to my real needs? And how am I being truly helpful to all the people in my life?

I don’t get to choose what happens. My task is how I respond. Will I be skillful or cause more suffering?

So the questions I continually ask myself are these:

Is this act loving? What is my motivation? Where is my mind? What am I feeling and thinking? I note this, and come back to awareness, my center.

I do this most effectively by bringing my awareness to my breath—really experiencing the breath as it enters and leaves my body. This takes intention.

This is a small act of surrender, letting go my insistent thoughts, and coming back to Spirit. Now I can focus on what really matters—following God—wherever God leads me.

As I willingly, with openness, with a feeling of letting go over and over, I come back home to my heart.

My home, my center, is a place in which no one else can live. It’s mine alone. Yet it leads to oneness with all, with the All.

I invite you to continue to notice, moment by moment, where your focus is. Where is your spiritual compass? This is what matters most—joining with God in your heart.

As Joshua said to his people, “Choose this day whom you will serve. For me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”   Joshua 24:15

This is a choice we make over and over. It’s never done. And it requires all our effort. There’s simply not enough energy left over to try to run someone else’s life, or to worry about his or her choices.

Will we serve love? For God is love. Love often requires difficult choices. What is the loving thing to do? What will bring honesty, truth, beauty and goodness into the present situation?

This requires deep questioning and even deeper listening.

I believe this is our task, and if we don’t do it, who will?

How will I relate to what arises in my life? Will I run away and distract myself by worrying about what someone else is doing? Or will I observe what my mind is thinking and how I am seeing?

Who do I need to speak to, and what is the best way to phrase my ideas?

Shall I spend my time watching TV dramas, worrying, or will I clean my own house and take care of my own garden?

Where is my home? Where do I receive the love that truly heals my soul?

It’s these kinds of questions that help clarify our soul tasks.

My deepest desire is to express the love of God that dwells within me and continually recreates me. How about you?

Whatever you decide, do it with all your heart. Put your passion into it and you will find it eventually will lead you home.

All paths lead to God. Some are just more interesting than others, perhaps, but please know that God is always calling you home – home to the heart. And God will never quit on you!

Rev. Billie

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Trust Grace

7/5/2013

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“There is something that is for me more than I am for myself.”

Can you, will you remember this? Something is more for you than you, yourself, are!

This is grace. Grace is the strongest force in the universe, greater even than anything we can imagine. It works in surprising ways.

Resources are all around us. They are here to help us, and I often don’t see them until I get into a tight spot. It is then that I discover how willing the universe is to help me. From “tight to trust” is what I call it.

It has been my experience that as long as I think I can manage things on my own I do not turn to God for help.

“Our major addiction is “competency addiction,” says Stephen Jenkinson, the Griefwalker.

As with most addictions they usually go unnoticed because we sense them as part of our inherent make-up. We perversely say, “I can’t change the way I am, can I?” These are the attitudes that keep us enslaved by addictions.

Grace is here just humming right along while we try to manage life on our own, struggling over and over to untangle situations and create different outcomes to events.

And all the while there is something inside us, grace, that continues to hold our souls and love us into a higher version of ourselves.

This power is more for us than we are for ourselves.

When will we admit that we need help? That we can’t manage on our own?

And when will we become humble enough to accept the help, and allow ourselves to be led by love?

When will we trust love so much that we are happy to turn our will and our lives over to God? To be grateful to be led by grace? To admit that we don’t know what to do next, and will follow higher instructions?

I think about the many ways grace has saved me, over and over, in the past. People do kind things that surprise me. Something happens that I had no idea would occur. When life looked most empty, something appeared when I didn’t expect it.

It seems the universe is always ready to bestow its love. I just need to open to it by letting go of my worries, by taking my struggles to God and talk with God about them.

I ask myself, in my journal, what is the worst thing that can happen? Then I let all my fears pour out on the pages. As I continue I discover that it takes a turn somewhere. It always surprises me.

I watch the words appear and something new shows up. Once again my sour predictions didn’t come true. The road turned. I am reminded of the scripture:

“Greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

There is something greater, more profound and more beautiful than my own sense of what can happen. Why not let it take charge?

I remember when I was a small child I refused to exchange the nickel I held in my hand for the dime my uncle was offering me. The nickel was bigger than the dime. That meant loss. My habit of judging by appearances was already ingrained. I remember his laughing at me and then I knew I had misjudged the situation.

We must outgrow our childish ways. As children we cannot understand that things are not always what they appear.

Let us not rely on our ego, but continually create the spaciousness of mind that is open to the larger—to that which is unseen—to that which we hope for. Shift to the place of grace by letting go of what we think is so.

God is willing, are we? God waits in patience, and just loves us the way we are right now. We don’t need to get any better.

As we courageously step into our fears, and continue doing so, we will find grace. Try it.

-Rev. Billie

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