May 4

Science of Mind Magazine Daily Guide for 5/04/08

By Rev. Margaret Stortz

LOLA

What is laughter?  What is laughter?  It is God waking up!  O it is God waking up!

Hafiz, I Heard God Laughing

Everything necessary to the full and complete expression of the most boundless experience of joy is mine now.

Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, page 290

NEAR my home, parked at the corner of a primary school, is a bus named Lola.  The bus is pink and yellow, with curlicues and doodads decorating its sides; it has a few daffodils painted near the marquee.  In place of a destination inside its marquee, it has the name “Lola.”

Now my imagination got to working.  The bus was no longer an “it.”  Lola became a “she,” and I could visualize scores of happy children dashing out of school and scampering up her waiting steps.  It charmed me to think that someone had enough creativity to give an ordinary school bus a little bit of soul, and it also made me realize that nothing is ever as mundane and uninteresting as it may seem.

One might ask what a bus named Lola has to do with spirituality.  I would say that these days every bit of the divine joy of being we can uncover is worth the effort.  A bus named Lola may not make a profound statement, but on the other hand, she is another bit of whimsy through which the Divine makes Itself known.  When Lola rumbles down the road, she brings God's happiness everywhere she goes.

affirmation

God is my true life.  It cannot be otherwise.  God leads me; God trails me; God holds me in the arms of spiritual love.  Joy is my birthright.

Re: May 4

365 Tao (by Deng Ming-Dao) # 124                   

Defiance

                    Every god can be defied.                   
                    No choice, no devotion.

There have been many rebels who have chosen to defy their gods.  Without this option, there can be no true devotion to a holy concept.  For devotion is only valuable when a conscious decision is made to follow that course, even in acknowledgment of the difficulties ahead.  Choosing to be a devout person is good.  Choosing to defy the gods is also good, for it reaffirms the basic ability of human beings to make choices.  We cannot support religions which say that there are no choices.

Metaphysical totalitarianism of any kind stifles the freedom we have as human beings.  It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment - that's how you train dogs, not develop people.  Spirituality is only great when it allows that utmost freedom to follow it.  If we suffer from difficulties, that is not holy retribution, and we should not allow it to create delibitating questions.

If you endure a crisis in your life, it may well challenge your faith.  Perhaps you will even respond bitterly to your gods and cry out: How could anything holy permit this atrocity to happen to me?  But gods are not our parents or protectors.  They are there only to inspire us to be better people.  They symbolize the inherent choice of this existence.  It is secondary whether we choose belief or defiance.  What is precious is that we are always able to choose.

Re: May 4

Thank You,
I feel better already.
You guy are the bomb.

Namaste'

Re: May 4

365 Science of Mind
May - Joy

Re: May 4

Perfect message for World Laughter Day, Helen. And Deb, these words are perfect for energy hygiene, another perfection for the new moon day that's tonight…tomorrow.

“Now that I realize my true nature, every negative thought has left me.  I have no fear, no dread, no feeling of inferiority, no feeling of tension.  Every cell, tissue, organ, and function in my body is in complete harmony.  Only good can be manifested through me.”

Re: May 4

Science of Mind Daily Guide for 5/4/09
By Rev. Jesse Jennings

TAKING BACK OUR POWER

But power dwells with cheerfulness…while despair is no muse, and untunes the active powers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, ”Considerations By the Way”

Any thought which tends to inspire, to comfort, and to give peace to the mind is good.
The Science of Mind, page 250

WHAT we believe, we get to experience, which may then tend to make us think it is the absolute and final truth, when all it truly is, is a consequence of a belief we ourselves have entertained.  Today being a Monday, there may be a tendency to feel moved around by life.  It's the start of a work week, in which others may command our time and attention, tell us what to do and when to do it, and impress upon us our accountability to an organization and to other people in it who call the shots.  That's one way to look at it, and plenty of us do.  Here's another way.  This is a great time to assess our power, and to take back any portion of it that may have been parceled off along the way.

In spiritual reality, of course, there is One Power in which all of us are said to live, move, and have our being.  In material fact, our experience of that Power is managed, and sometimes mismanaged, by us.  Mismanagement would be whatever brings us to a sense of subservience or personal insignificance.  No one wants to feel that way; who in truth makes us feel that way?  We do, and we can stop it, and turn it around, by taking real pride in what we do and how we do it, and teaching others by example how we wish to be treated: with the same level of respect with which we are eager to treat them.

Affirmation
Today I claim my place in the One Power that has made all creation.  As the experience It is having of Itself through me, I am heir to infinity, eternality, and all measure of joy.

Re: May 4

Daily Word — Monday, May 4, 2009
Joy
I let my Christ Light shine, and my joy is complete.

During a challenging time, I may let the adverse influence of circumstances that are beyond my control cause me to feel down. Thank goodness, I bring myself back up by knowing and affirming that the source of my joy is within me.

Whenever I notice that my focus has gotten off center, I turn my thoughts to the indwelling Christ Spirit. The moment I do, I feel my spirits lift. Joy stirs within me to warm my heart and transform my thoughts with peace and inspiration.

The Christ Spirit within makes my joy complete. There is joy in letting the Christ Light shine through me as love and optimism, as truth and understanding. Knowing that my joy cannot be taken from me, I am empowered to live life fully and completely.

“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.”–Psalm 16:11

Re: May 4

A Year With Rumi by Coleman Barks