Rising Above Fear

I used to be terrified of spiders. One day a Wolf Spider appeared in my bathroom. Because it was so big, I could see it lift its leg as I came near, see that it was afraid (as big as it was). I could see its life, that it meant me no harm. It just wanted to live.

Wolf Spider

I found a way with a glass and a paper to take it to the door. At that moment, it got free and I screamed and the spider screamed (I heard it with my spiritual hearing) — anyway, it ran outside, and I ran into another room.

The fear was still in my body, but I recognized it as being only a physical reaction, which I did not have to identify with. My body was shaking and it took a while for the fear feelings to pass, but those feelings were not my true self.

To live an entire life with hatred towards anything, with fear of a spider, with the idea that their lives are mine to take because of hatred or fear — is to live a life unexamined. 

Life takes on new meaning when we begin to rise above our fears and hatreds. 

I still don't like to see spiders, but do my best to set them free outside. 

"The unexamined life is not worth living" —Socrates

Practical things

Deearest & Nearest,

This morning I woke up with an email message that T-Mobile had a data breach—which means my data was compromised, since I use T-Mobile for my cell phone. That meant that I had to get busy freezing my credit reports. And take other actions to help protect my data.

Is it how I wanted to begin my morning? Nope. But...

I took a few immediate actions, then stopped for breakfast. Paused to be still before doing more.

The world is always bombarding us with "things to do" — because the world created by man is a world of ego. That's all it can do. But no matter what the world sends, we do not have to respond from that same level. 

And we never have to feel like a victim  — poor me. We don't have to complain. We can accept what IS. And deal with it to the best of our ability.

When we struggle to hold on and maintain control — well, we struggle. And struggling is no fun. 

When you find yourself struggling, trying to maintain control — use it as a spiritual exercise. Look deep into yourself. Find out what is there.

You do not have to let victim personality, fear, and anxiety control you. You really don't. You don't have to keep trying to build up the false self. You really don't. 

With lots of love now and always...

BE THE CROW YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

• Collect shiny things
• Hop happily down the street for no apparent reason
• Scream loudly when you see your friends

Plans & Visions

  Dearest & Nearest,

Your plan for your life may have nothing to do with God’s plan. God’s plan is what happens. Your plan is what you think will happen. This does not mean that you should not make plans. Life must be lived; plans must be made.

You might plant an apple tree with a vision of mouth-watering red apples in your mind. Just when the apples are about ready to eat, you get a new job in a new country. You never eat those apples, but you eat new fruit in a new country and someone else enjoys the apples you left behind. Or maybe a storm destroys your tree and all of your apples. You cannot eat those apples, but you still benefit from having planted and loved a tree, and so does the earth! 

An old Chippewa Indian axiom advises, “If your eyes cry because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars.”

It can feel so sad to lose something or someone you cherish. No one can say that sadness is not real for you. Emotions are part of being human. To push away or deny feelings is to be less than alive. Feelings must be acknowledged if they are to be resolved and dissolved into love—not hidden away to become clouds that obscure the light from shining through. When we are free to experience a feeling completely, we are also free to move on from that experience. Emotions can be either a flowing river, cleansing and freeing, or a dam that stops the flow.

If you cannot linger to taste even one apple from the tree you have planted, feel your longing; cry your tears—but please do not take old tears with you to the new country to which you are traveling. Neither hold a grudge at the storm for destroying your tree. The angels might change that old Chippewa saying to, “If your eyes cry too long because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars,”—and add another, “If your eyes never cry, your unshed tears may become clouds that obscure the light of God from shining clearly through you.”

Maybe you thought you were planting the tree to eat apples. Maybe God put the vision in your mind, not to eat apples, but as part of a greater plan. Maybe it was as simple as planting and loving a tree for a while, reaping the benefits of sun and exercise, filling your mind with the beauty of nature, giving back to the earth, and leaving a lovely legacy.

YOU ARE MADE OF LIGHT

Although it has been said that you are the light, angels remind you that your true nature is more than the light. Your false nature, the nature of ego, exists in separation from Light. Your true nature is that which contains both light and dark. THAT is the true light: A light your eyes are incapable of seeing: A light your mind is unable to fathom: It is the heart that knows and recognizes this Light. This is the Light of compassion, wisdom, and the only true love.

ACTIVELY DOING SPIRITUAL WORK

Dearest & Nearest,

When you are actively doing spiritual work—which doesn't mean just sitting in meditation once a day—it means ACTIVELY DOING SPIRITUAL WORK—then your life truly becomes permeated with spirituality, like the scent of roses or lilacs permeate the air where they grow. Then spirituality can permeate even your dreams. Even in your dreams your spiritual work towards freedom can continue.

For example, I woke from a dream the other morning. In this dream there was pain—someone was in great emotional pain—and I could feel it. And I was telling him that it was because he was focusing upon these painful thoughts. And that over here, if he just shifts his focus, is a beautiful pure white shining flower.

I can still see that flower now. It was shimmering and radiant with light.

I told him—if you just shift your focus to this flower, the pain will go away. Nothing can touch this flower—which is the radiance of your true being—not all the pain and darkness of the world. You must only shift your focus.

Isn't this a wonderful spiritual teaching. And it all came in a dream.

with love and devotion, as always...

So sweetly pure and innocent this bunny sat quietly while I took it's picture, knowing I meant it no harm.

The Prologue to St. John's Gospel

Dearest & Nearest,

The Prologue to St. John's Gospel:

 1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 2 All things came into being through God; without God was not anything made that was made. 4 In God was life, and the life was the light of humanity. 5 And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.

_______________

Darkness cannot understand Light! And darkness can NOT put out  the Light.  So fear not the darkness. It is simply your wrong understanding. It is not real except as you make it real by believing in it. 

The angels say: O Beautiful One. Why believe in that which is not real, which was never real, which is made real only through ignorance? When your wrong understanding dissolves, so does darkness. 

transmuting negativity into the Gold of God

Dearest & Nearest,

Even as Mother Earth is undergoing traumatic changes because human beings have populated it for so many eons, without  caring for  her—even so, Mother Earth remains in love—she is IN Love—not outside of love.

Only humans are outside of love. Humans have thus  far failed in their responsibility to care for Mother Earth and all of her children. This did not happen suddenly. It happened over eons of time. 

Just as a drop of water dripping slowly over eons can create a  cavern—so has the unconsciousness of human beings as a whole created the crisis that we are now  experiencing. 

What is the answer? The first and most important answer is—YOU become conscious. YOU practice awareness in each moment. 

YOU be intelligent. YOU live with awareness. YOU know what is happening in your body, mind and feelings. YOU be conscious so that the negative aspects of your being can be transmuted into gold—the Gold of God.

Just as the great artist, Vincent van Gogh, devoted himself to creating beauty upon canvas—using paint to turn his pain into love upon the canvas—transmuting negativity into the Gold of  God—so can you.

with love & devotion, as always...

HAVE YOU?

 HAVE YOU?

Have you loved with all your being today?

Have you lived with great enthusiasm today?

Have you laughed with all your heart today?

Here we have a brilliant red sun setting. Gorgeous to look at...but at the expense of the fires burning all over the western part of the United States (which aren't, by the way, so united lately...but that's another story).

And the fires burning so intensely are the result of global warming, which is affecting everyone, everywhere, both humans and animals, nature and cities, earth and waters, air and weather.

One way we can respond is by living deeply, intensely, completely—in the present moment. Whatever happens to the world, however helpless one may at times feel, however despondent—you have the possibility to enter into the Center of Being, that place that is beyond description.

Just as the sun is—always the sun—so is the sun at the center of your being always the Sun. The sun does not change color—even when the pollution of raging fires reaches 3,000 miles to the east coast. 

What is the teaching for you? What can you learn from climate change? You can learn that the time to turn within is NOW. It has always been now. It is only now. Now is all there is.

When you believe in some other now, a now that belongs to the past or future, you are—simply believing. Blind believing. 

The angels say—come out of blind believing into SEEING. See with heart connected to divine intelligence. This is why you have incarnated upon Mother Earth. This is why Mother Earth, who is a living breathing being, has opened her arms to receive you.

Mother Earth is not like a mother on earth. She is the Mother. She longs only for your freedom. She is already  free. She has opened her whole being to the souls who have incarnated in human bodies to complete their earthly journey into wholeness, which is holiness.

That is why you are here. 

Psalms 46:

Dearest &  Nearest,

I  took this picture the other evening as the sun was on its way to sleep. The picture doesn't show the intensity of color—the sun itself was deep red and orange, like a ball of fire burning in the sky. It was breathtaking to look at .... but ...

...the reason for the color is because of the fires burning constantly in the western part of the USA and in Italy at the moment. The fire in the state of Oregon is as large as the city of Los Angeles. It's heart-breaking to think of the small animals, the large animals, losing their lives, losing their homes. And the trees and hills and plants being burned and suffocated...

...these fires have burned so long and so intensely that their effects are being felt/seen clear across the country, to the east coast, where I live...which is why  the sun was a burning ball in the sky and the moon that night bright orange...

...and then there are the floods in Europe, and fires in Italy, and changing weather patterns all over the earth. Even where I live, which is lovely and green right now, there have been many days of rain and some flooding, though nothing dangerous, but still ... the animals in the hills and forests and meadows are affected.

We are living in the midst of climate change. For too long human beings have taken and taken from the earth, without giving  back. 

There are those who want to change this, who have strived in their lives to live in harmony with Mother Earth — but — the greed and avarice of those who live from egos, wanting more and more, while giving less and less—those who live in unconsciousness — has tipped the balance towards darkness.

But ... be not afraid ... take comfort in these words from the the Bible:

Psalms 46:

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

I have written about this more extensively in the lessons, for example, The Kingdom of God is Within and  Pandemics and Things.

For today, do not despair. There is Light within. This Light is brighter than darkness, stronger than fear, and endures when all else fades. 

This Light is your true nature. It is your saving Grace. 

Until next time...your loving teacher & companion along the clear and simple way.

One of the poems I memorized as a child, it paints a picture of the awe and wonder of a star-filled night — something everyone can't see, especially with light pollution and air pollution. So if you haven't met Sara Teasdale, let me introduce her...Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) 

Stars

Alone in the night

On a dark hill

With pines around me

Spicy and still, 

And a heaven full of stars

Over my head

White and topaz

And misty red; 

Myriads with beating

Hearts of fire

The aeons

Cannot vex or tire; 

Up the dome of heaven

Like a great hill

I watch them marching

Stately and still. 

And I know that I

Am honored to be

Witness

Of so much majesty.

This poem is in the public domain. And if you'd like to listen to it spoken, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLG-QnMbUUI

This is a fascinating book. I mentioned it in: 

THE NATURE COURSE

PART 2, MESSAGE 17

You are Stardust

You are Golden

You are made of flowers

When I took this photo of the Center of a flower, I had no idea there was a tiny bug inside it. I didn't see it until I posted it!

Dearest & Nearest,

I am making an attempt to restart Your Open Classroom after a long time away (as time goes). I stopped because there was so little active participation from any of you, other than reading what is written. And because google blogger is not the easiest to navigate—and so I can understand your hesitancy to participate here. And because you all have busy lives. And because social media has become much more inviting.

However, I have decided to return—to share a bit of my life as 'teacher' and 'student' of the clear and simple way. You can visit—or not. Your Classroom is, as it has always been, always open. And you are always welcome to share. And to browse the archives. I don't care if you actively participate. It is my intention to show up anyway.

I have no idea what I will be writing here. I never do. I have very little idea what will be happening the next moment. But people live as if they actually 'know'—as if they are 'in control'—of the next moment—or the next.

I grow weary with the pretense of playing the games, acting out the roles. This is not an inner weariness. In my Center, like the center of a flower, my heart and soul sing. It is this song I am interested in. This song I want to hear, to dance to. 

The world exerts such a strong external pull—sort of like gravity that holds us in place—only gravity is friendly; it keeps us from flying into space. The pull of the world isn't friendly at all. It wants to pull the strings, keep us puppets, so that we live mechanical lives and never break free.

SO...growing weary with the pretenses of the world is a sign you are moving in a good direction, not in the bad direction of the world, but in the direction of Truth. You are no longer interested in the way of the world. You recognize that they bring you not to peace and freedom, but to false imprisonment.

You are free as soon as you recognize yourself to be.

with love, as always 

the Truth Teacher is within you

Spiritual teachings wake up the Truth within you. They do not create that Truth. Truth is not inherent in anything or anyone outside you. Truth exists within you. Spiritual Teachings can only point the way to the Truth Teacher within you. They cannot create that Truth.

The wisdom of the heart cannot be learned

It can only be revealed

YOU are not a thought

What are you like inside? Do you get angry when someone cuts in front of you out on the highway? Do you feel that you've been cheated by God? You've been left out? Who's thinking that? Who's thinking you've been cheated? A thought. But you take that thought as being yourself, and you call it valid. —Vernon Howard Talk, June 26, 1980, Man is in a Stage of Evolutionary Development

You are not your deepest fear

Do not fear to see the darkness. That darkness is not who you are. Do not listen to the voice of ego. Listen to the voices of angels. Listen to the small still voice of God. You are not the darkness. You are not your worst act. You are not your darkest most secret thought. Your true nature is Light.

Cedar Tea

I was going to share this with the people taking Nature Course Part 2, but decided to share it with everyone. It's a recipe for Cedar Tea, shared with me by a woman who works with the indigenous population of Canada, members of the First Nation.

Cedar Tea is wonderful medicine. Easy to make. Go to where there is no road salt or chemicals so you can gather clean cedar. Offer your tobacco. For people who don't carry tobacco, you can offer bird seeds. 

If you sense that the tree doesn't want you to take the cedar, leave it be. The plants will always speak to us, and we can learn, again, how to listen to them the way we once did.

Cut only what you need. Use the green - a handful is good enough. Remember to offer thanks to the tree. 

Boil about half a handful of cedar in 2 cups of water until the water turns light golden. Only drink 1 cup. Cedar is powerful medicine and contains a lot of vitamin C. 

You can refrigerate any remaining tea. Heat it again in a pot, not a microwave. Return anything you don't use back to the earth.

Remember: Cedar tea should never be drunk more than one cup per day. Cedar is a safe and very effective medicine, but its medicine will soon become poison if this one simple rule is not followed. Cedar contains Thujone which is toxic to the human body in large doses. Maybe best to drink it only every other day, or less.

Beloved One

Beloved One How are you faring? Please do not be harsh with yourself. “Spiritual” people are often hard on themselves for not living up to their “spiritual” ideas. What if there is nothing to live up to—especially your own ideas of perfection. What if there is just Being…being in the moment. Learning in the moment. Understanding in the moment. What if you could “forgive” yourself each moment? Where would be the stress, then? The tension? The despair? Wouldn’t it all disappear? Let yourself be. Just be. Leave yourself alone for a while — stop identifying with harsh thoughts of lack, loss, fear, limitation, and self-condemnation. Stop letting harsh thoughts control you, make you feel bad and worthless. Stop telling yourself that you did it wrong, should do it better. Accept what IS now. What just happened — happened. It’s over now. It’s over. You do not have to continually blame and reproach yourself for what just happened—whether it happened a minute ago or ten years ago. You really don’t. You. Really. Don’t. You are free to forgive yourself. Now. Each now. Each now is new when you do not carry the burdens of a moment ago into now—otherwise, there is no now for you. There is only the past with all its burdens. Let yourself alone. Let yourself be. At least for a moment. At least this moment. Perhaps you’d like to tour to a tomb in Egypt today... https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=NeiMEZa9d93&fbclid=IwAR2sQ5D54j3XIiH6SQKMQuPc9ytsZDHtmtiMNfECZ3-OFGb5tAAQhaL3LKM

THE LOST FAIRY

Do you remember the story of The Lost Fairy that I sent as one of your daily messages? I invited you to create your own ending to the story. Our California classmate Debra R. did just that. Thanks, Debra. I liked reading your ending. It's nice to see that we can have different endings for the same story. Just like in real life. Here is the story I sent, with Debra's ending below.

THE LOST FAIRY

I should have known she was only pretending to be lost. How can a fairy ever be lost? No matter what a fairy tells you, no matter how contrary a fairy acts—and fairies can act very contrary—all fairies belong to the kingdom of angels. So just as an angel can never be lost, neither can a fairy. 

Still, on this particular day, this particular fairy did her best to convince me that she was lost. She sighed and let her big green eyes look very sad. She sat down on a coppery-colored mushroom in the middle of a fairy ring and pouted. She flew around in circles like she had no idea which way to go. 

Finally, she insisted that she just had to sit on my shoulder so she could have a good look around and find out where she was. 

"You are right where you are," I told her. 

She scowled. 

"You've got wings. Fly high.”

She scowled again and told me she was tired and too full of taffy to fly except in circles and circles never got her anywhere. 

“Taffy? When were you eating taffy?" 

She told me it was none of my business. 

I rolled my eyes to the heavens. Who can argue with a fairy, especially a lost one? I picked her up, put her on my shoulder, and started my walk through the jungly trees, my little dog at my side. I must have walked about a mile with the little fairy happily buzzing, humming, and chattering in my ear.

Want to hear the rest of this story? So do I, but I ran out of words. You are welcome to write your own ending, so long as it’s happy. Fairies only like happy endings. Please feel free to send me your endings. or post them here. One day, perhaps, I will post mine -- or not. Hugs & Kisses, Indira

Debra wrote:
 Indira, I had such fun with this!

Fairy 🧚‍♂️ lost story 

Feeling quietly invigorated, it was time for me to go home as well. I said to the fairy, “Have you found home?”

She began to snicker and giggle, as only fairies can do. "Silly, I am home wherever I am in this beautiful 🌳 forest."

A lesson for you to walk with ease and find your peace as we stroll along. Hand in hand or wing to wing!

"But I do have a house, can you find the door? Look high and low for my humble abode, decorated with moss, a toad stool...a whisper of a feather. A place to hide, a place to sleep, a riddle is yours to keep. And Taffy is my name."

Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen, Hsin Hsin Ming Seng Ts'an, Translation by Richard B. Clarke

https://web.csulb.edu/~wweinste/HsinHsinMing.html

The Great Way* is not difficult for those who have no preferences.  When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.  Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything.  To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.  When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect, like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.  Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.  Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness.  Be serene in the oneness of things, and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.  When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity, your very effort fills you with activity.  As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.  To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.  The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth.  Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.  At the moment of inner enlightenment, there is going beyond appearance and emptiness.  The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance.  Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state; avoid such pursuits carefully.  If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.  Although all dualities come from the One, do not be attached even to this One.  When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.  When thought-objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.  Things are objects because of the subject (mind); the mind (subject) is such because of things (objects).  Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.  In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains, in itself, the whole world.  If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine, you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute; the faster they hurry, the slower they go.  And clinging (attachment) cannot be limited.  Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.  Just let things be in their own way, and there will be neither coming nor going.  Obey the nature of things (your own nature) and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

When thought is in bondage, the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.  What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separation?

If you wish to move in the one Way, do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.  Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.  The wise man strives to no goals, but the foolish man fetters himself.  There is one Dharma, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.  To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.  All dualities come from ignorant inference.  They are like dreams or flowers in air; foolish to try to grasp them.  Gain and loss, right and wrong; such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease.  If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.  To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.  When all things are seen equally, the timeless Self-essence is reached.  No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary, and the stationary in motion; both movement and rest disappear.  When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot exist.  To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases.  Doubts and irresolutions vanish, and life in true faith is possible.  With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.  All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.  Here thought, feeling, knowledge and imagination are of no value.  In this world of Suchness, there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To come directly into harmony with this reality, just simply say when doubts arise, "Not two".  In this "not two", nothing is separate, nothing is excluded.  No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth.  And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it, a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.  Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference, for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen.  So, too, with being and non-being.  Don't waste time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this.  One thing, all things, move among and intermingle without distinction.  To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.  To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!  The Way is beyond language, for in it, there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.