May 20

Science of Mind Magazine Daily Guide for 5/20/08

By Rev. Margaret Stortz

OUR SPIRITUAL ROOT

…all your moods and colors of love / Come from His Divine vats of dye and Gold.

Hafiz, I Heard God Laughing

Man's life is rooted in the Universal and the Eternal, which life is none other than the Life of God.

Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, page 164

TO me, nature has some of the most graphic ways of showing us God in action.  For example, outside my front door there is a beautiful, deep maroon filigree maple.  Truly it is a thing of exquisite loveliness.

One day, as I was admiring it, I noticed a small, single shoot showing below the main branches that was a completely different maple.  It had a much fuller leaf, and it was bright green.  Suddenly I remembered that our filigree had been grafted onto a maple with a stouter, stronger base, and here it was, peeking through.

Once again, nature reminded me that humans, like my delicate filigree, are rooted in something far stronger and more durable than our own individual lives, and while the things of my life run vigorously through my days, I often forget this.

In my daily prayer work, I take the time to recognize the creativity of divine love that is fundamental to my very being.  For all my pushing and pulling, I know that my will can't get me everywhere.  The ways of the infinite are always at work and in motion, sweeping together the desires of my heart in ways I could never have imagined.

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.  Nature will “out,” and so will Spirit, especially when we stand aside and let God be God.

Re: May 20

365 Science of Mind
Ernest Holmes

I know that the Perfect Life of the spirit is my life, and i now permit It to radiate through my world of thought and action—to express in my physical form.

Because my whole being it this Perfect God-Life, I have nothing to fear. Every person I meet recognizes the perfect being that is my true Self, recognizes Love and peace and wisdom and courage in me. Each person I contact feels our common bond, knows that we are part of the Perfect Whole, the harmonious centers of consciousness in the great Unity of Life, and so has faith in me.

No one could wish to harm me in any way. I too, can know only love and understanding for my fellow beings. I am truly interested in each one I meet—interested in their hopes, their aspirations— and helpful to them.

I know, because I am God-Life, God is expression, that every circumstance I find myself in is right for me. Through my consciousness of Love, which is the very essence of God-Life, I transform my seeming imperfection into the perfect idea of my True Self. God knows me only as a Perfect Idea, and that Perfection I now manifest.

Re: May 20

365 Tao (by Deng Ming-Dao) # 140

Note - this was posted to May 19th in error, see that day to pick up the reading that was missed.

Dissent

                    Old man: Dissent is not disloyalty.
                    Be careful before you retaliate.
                    Your steel wrapped in cotton
                    May only be brittle bone wrapped in fat.

No one is a supreme authority.  People seek leaders, priests, gurus, and hermits thinking that someone has a precise formula for living correctly.  No one does.  No one can know you as well as you can know yourself.  All that you can gain from a wise person is the assurance of some initial guidance.  You may even spend decades studying under such an extraordinary person, but you should never surrender your dignity, independence, and personality.

There is no single way to do things in life.  There are valid paths, even though they may differ from the ways of respected elders.  Diversity is good for tradition.  Too often, elders confuse dissent with disloyalty and punish people for the crime of having a different view.  They are no longer in touch with Tao but instead mouth self-serving convention.  Perhaps the panic of their own impending death makes them clutch.  When the leaders become repressive, it is a sign that their time is drawing to a close.

A saying about old masters was that they were like steel wrapped in cotton:  They appeared soft on the outside but still held great power on the inside.  We all hope for elders like that.  But oftentimes, the old masters have lost their mandate of Tao.  Then, when tested, they are merely brittle bone and fat.  How can we respect such people?

Re: May 20

Science of Mind Daily Guide for 5/20/09
By Rev. Jesse Jennings

UNBROKEN  UNITY

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
Swami Vivekananda

No false sense of separation can come between people, nor disturb the realization of the unity of all life.
The Science of Mind, page 547

IN underground train stations in the UK, you'll find cautions to “Mind the gap,” because between a train and a platform there's a space into which a person could inadvertantly step.  Here stateside there are gaps to be minded as well: any separation we have thought to exist between ourselves and our Source.  Such seeming degrees of separation crop up between the self and its answers, as though what we needed to know existed somewhere other than where we are, and it entails an ordeal to track it down.  Other imaginary gaps are between ourselves and nature, ourselves and others, mind and matter, or spirituality and materiality.  Perhaps the fundamental pretended separation is between humankind and the Divine.

Minding the gap is noticing when we're introducing an invented sense of separation into our thoughts.  When things don't work out as expected, we might resign ourselves that “it wasn't meant to be,” as if there were a distance between ourselves and our life's meaning, or “God didn't plan that,” as if these plans were being cooked up somewhere else, too.  But no real gap exists.  Answers to why things happen are found in our own grasp of the God-presence within us, and particularly the use we make of Its law by our attitudes and desires.  Everything is One, all here, all now.

Affirmation
I know my connection in Spirit and with Its immutable law is fully operational right where I am now.  Any sense of distance or absence is gently released in the light of new knowing that I and my Creator are one.

Re: May 20

Daily Word — Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Commitment
I choose life!

To demonstrate my desire for increased energy, vitality, and strength, I make a commitment to think and act in life-affirming ways. Knowing my body to be a temple of God, I care for it as I would a sacred creation, for indeed it is.

With awareness of my spiritual nature, I make choices–choices that promote renewal and restoration of my mind and body. I choose foods that promote health, and I keep my body moving with activities that are fun and enlivening.

I exercise my faith with the understanding that I am energized by the spirit of God–my wellspring of health and wholeness.

My choices are affirmations of life. I choose life and experience the benefits of a healthy mind, expressing through a healthy body.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God.”–1 Corinthians 6:19

Re: May 20

A Year With Rumi by Coleman Barks