All posts by gnstocking@comcast.net
The Gate is Wide, The Path is Narrow
2018 Thanksgiving note
Here in the U.S. we are celebrating our Thanksgiving holiday. In our house we are quickly converting the kitchen/dining/living room area from the construction storage site it has been for the past few weeks back into a welcoming space for guest and gluttony. The new floors and doors are in (doors still need paint – thankful for a long week-end), new appliances start arriving Saturday, and a new kitchen plan is coming together for action in upcoming weeks.
We are not forgetting our neighbors who are still dealing with hurricane aftermath, the loss of loved ones, and those just starting the fire recovery process. The outward appearance of these challenges is undeniable and the work ahead daunting. We are thankful for the many heroic efforts of officials, friends and strangers who step gracefully into their “angel” personas serving however needed when called upon.
We are thankful knowing these outward appearances do not define our neighbors nor ourselves. The power to cope with the task at hand continues as always to emanate from within; flowing through us displacing any fears or doubts that momentarily distract us. We are thankful knowing the politics of our nation and around the world do not define the wonderful people who do the work day in and day out of simply being human – kind, smart, compassionate Spiritual beings choosing constantly to allow their True nature to shine through life’s darkest moments.
We are thankful that we are able to enter into home remodeling by choice not circumstance, and thankful knowing that whatever outward appearances demonstrate wherever people are today, the sun rises again tomorrow bringing new opportunities, new angels, and another day to be thankful for.
Lighten Your Load
The Tale the Whale Tale Tells
Uniform of the Day
Wandering Off The Path
What is Spirituality
A Snowflake Falls in Greenland
by Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking
Imagine a scene more than one hundred thousand years ago, the Neanderthal are quickly dwindling and homo sapiens are succumbing to increasing drought and climate fluctuations. On the Euro/African continents the human experiment teeters on the brink of extinction. Over the arctic regions of prehistoric North America and Siberia a train of atmospheric low pressure cells form and strengthen; warm moist air siphons northward on the back side of a late season high stalled near North America’s Atlantic coast. Drawn up into the bitter cold arctic air the moisture turns to snow. Over the planes of Greenland molecules of water crystallize and conjoin dropping and ascending or drifting as updrafts and outflows of storm gusts mindlessly propel the budding snowflakes.
Our lives are the out picturing of a million variables every day. World politics, local politics, family and career politics; some we participate in actively, some shape our experiences without our knowledge. From our experiences, we form our beliefs; ideas become planted in our minds. There is no grand plan at play, just an endless series of random reactions to unseen forces.
Earth’s climate patterns are changing and the northern latitudes are cooling. Snow falls regularly now and where it had melted away in summers past it now lingers into the next winter becoming buried under the new season’s deposit of random snowflakes. Millennia pass and the snows are compressed into massive ice formations that become rock grinding, land shaping machines.
Our Homo Sapiens ancestors empowered by their evolved larger brain have reasoned solutions to their impending doom. Humans are on the move seeking more hospitable lands and developing tools to work the lands in hand; agriculture provides year-round sustenance by allowing humans to make food where nature has been miserly in its provision. Humans recognize their insignificance in the overall bigger picture; surly some powerful super intellect is driving all the natural occurrences unfolding around them. They recognize a greater intelligence and ponder their relationship with it.
The ice spurred on by nothing more than simple physics moves downhill where it eventually encounters the sea. At land’s end the ice is suspended briefly between the familiar land and the promise of the sea. Released into the sea the ice assumes a new identity, becoming an ice berg. Its new-found freedom has a price however, and from its first moment the ice berg begins to pay with its very life.
Our intellects evolved along with our growing brains. We developed an ego, a sense of self that assigned value to our own existence and demanded justifications for our decisions and actions. The hunter who ranged into another tribe’s domain, or the farmer who siphoned off more than their share of water justified their actions by convincing themselves their families depended on them to do whatever it took to provide the means of survival. In time, mere survival evolved into surplus, and surplus into profit and the Lord saw the profit and said it was good! Well actually, it was the ego of humans who said it was good, but by this time mankind was convinced that it was the very picture of God, so any popular human endeavor was by extension endorsed by God. Human ego was supplanting human recognition of its Spiritual nature, a blindness that has altered human history and threatened our very existence.
Relative to the land locked glacier an ice berg is a free spirit travelling along its merry way; having its grand adventure. It is however, anything but free. The berg never chose a short life floating free in the warming ocean waters. It succumbed to conditions it had no control over, broke off and floated away into warmer waters.
We often succumb to our egos in a similar fashion, leaping into regrettable decisions seemingly due to forces beyond our control. We differ from the hapless iceberg though in that we have the power of choice. We are faced with millions of variables each day and fortunately most of them allow hard wired responses; we turn left at the intersection and go to work, order ice tea with lunch because we like it and its endless refills. A few times each day we really need to show up; our value is questioned, our principles challenged. These are the key choices; does someone else define us? Are principles negotiable? Answer: No to both questions.
Ironically, we really are the very picture of God, we have simply reversed the relationship in our common consciousness. God is not human. Humans are God. It may be easier if we change the name, many say Spirit or Higher Power; there are dozens of other names, but the nut is that this thing is infinite therefore we are of it, in its image. It does not know anger, shame, doubt or any other human condition except through us. It is Love.
All the misery and strife we encounter and observe is the result of our collective belief in duality; a world of us versus them, a vengeful god, and limited resources. One hundred thousand years ago, a snowflake fell onto an expanding ice field; an idea onto a fertile mind. The snowflake grew into a glacier, the glacier calved an iceberg; the idea grew into a belief, the belief became a definition of self.
The iceberg drifted until one fateful night its path led it into a collision with history. The arrogance of man in the form of a ship, indestructible, racing into its destiny. Was it the fire in the coal bunker, the nature of its steel, inadequate design or just bad luck? Or was it just because a snowflake fell one hundred thousand years ago, and set into motion a cascade of random events that hundreds of people are now cast into a watery grave?
Many of the ideas we plant grow into greatness, and some few lead us toward destruction. We are blessed with the knowledge of the Universe to guide us, and the power of choice to adjust our course before colliding with certain ruin. The iceberg survived that night eventually dissolving back into the sea ignorant of the chaos it spawned, unaffected and uncaring of the heartache and loss in its wake.
Spirit provides for us as we believe with identical engrossment, ignorant of its effect, only certain in its end; to give to us without question. Aware of our power we are responsible to guide it in harmony with Spirit; to choose love, as Spirit is love. In harmony, we sing, without it we screech. One hundred thousand years ago, we teetered on the edge of extinction and became aware of our potential. If it seems we are once again headed over a cliff, be still within the chaos and remember that we are more than snowflakes drifting in the wind.
Learn more about the power of ideas and how Spirit acts on your beliefs at CSL.org and CSLFTL.org.
Judging a Book by Its Cover
By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking
We are quick to believe what we want to believe. We become so entrenched in our need to be right that we grasp on to any evidence that seems to confirm our belief whether it confirms our belief or not. A chain e-mail based on a 2008 photo of President Obama holding the book by Fareed Zakaria “The Post-American World” is still making the rounds as evidence of selective belief. Zakaria is a highly respected journalist who describes himself as, “. . . not a religious guy.”
The uninformed claims of the anonymous e-mail author were debunked in the Factcheck.com article “Obama’s Reading Material” posted October 1, 2009 by Lori Robertson. “Wanna believers,” or dis-believers depending on your view, still site the photo as proof of their unenlightened convictions regarding Obama’s religion and agenda. All of us fall into this trap from time to time. We forget our Spiritual Truth, empower our egos and embark on a quest to be proven right. We select evidence that supports our belief rather than letting the body of evidence lead us to the truth.
“The Post-American World” is actually a celebration of the American economy’s domination over factional and marginalized religious and political blocs. The world economy is homogenizing around the American free market model, and nations once seen as “foreign” and “hostile” are becoming more and more to be trade partners rather than trade rivals. The American rising tide is lifting all boats. America is winning and this is what victory looks like. We often miss opportunities to be happy because our good shows up differently than we expected. Our ego sets an expectation that the universe ignores and we are unhappy because our expectation is not met even though our goal is fulfilled.
For many an American victory resembles a video game with one nation standing among a smoldering ruin of vanquished foes. A quick review of the past century is in order. World War I left the German economy in shambles leading to World War II. The world powers adjusted their thinking and post war Germany was rebuilt with a thriving economy that not only endures to this day, but who’s “American” model dominated its “Soviet” model leading to a reunited country and strong western ally. Japan was bombed into submission and also evolved into an American modeled super economy. North Korea has remained in the dark ages, but its ally China’s economy is unrecognizable to its mid-century Communist architects. Vietnam is a bitter memory to Americans but economically is vibrant in a hybrid fashion. We prosper when we recognize our similarities and work together.
In sports rival teams acknowledge each other’s efforts with a post-game hand shake regardless the score or intensity of the contest. We recognize it as good sportsmanship to extend a hand to a fallen rival to assist them to their feet. There is nothing American about “piling on,” driving an opponent into the ground beyond any possible recovery. Spirit, our loving source, does not judge or hold grudges. As quickly as we relinquish our ego driven need to be right, we are realigned with Spirit and unaffected by chaotic appearances. We enjoy harmony in relationships and our prosperity unfolds before us.
Our perceptions inform our beliefs more strongly than facts. Our egos choose to believe our perceptions and commit to defending them in defense of itself. If our perceptions are correct, our ego is correct, our ego is happy our soul is in turmoil. Our soul knows the facts and becomes restless when they conflict with our belief.
We perceive a world torn by conflict and dominated by terrorist. “The Post-American World” informs us that the facts tell a different story. The facts demonstrate that there is less general warfare in the world and although horrible, terrorist acts are much less influential than we perceive them to be. The Americanized world economy recovers from each episode more quickly each time. Zakaria reminds us that our instant communication reality, our twenty four/seven news cycle and social media connect us to and fill our perceptions with every demonstration of frustration and fear whenever and wherever is occurs in our world. Fifty years ago millions died in conflicts around the world with little or no witness.
When we allow ourselves to believe what others say about us we are buying into the media hype. Each retelling of the story bends the truth a little more and we become more disconnected from our Spiritual Truth. We can break the cycle of internal misinformation by remember that our story is now and stories are transient. Our soul, Spirit is forever and unchanging. We can choose to turn off the media in our head that informs our perceptions and reconnect to our Spiritual Truth. Stop fueling the myths and what remains is Truth. Truth is harmony, there is no resistance, and the vibration is as smooth and steady as a well maintained machine.
The facts inform us that contrary to our perceptions Muslim leaders are instrumental in emasculating jihadist claiming to represent the religion. Tireless efforts by a united world police have neutralized countless threats and these united efforts continue with common respect and goals. The facts revealed through polling analysis indicate that currently Westerners are more inclined to accept collateral casualties in pursuit of wrongdoers than Muslims.
“The Post-American World” illuminates the changing role of the United States in the world’s economy. As everyone’s “skin in the game” increases the wisdom of working together becomes apparent. No one enjoys being told what to do. Everyone likes to emulate success. The world is catching on to America’s success and wants to play, not be played. Competition is healthy and rivalries promote exceptional efforts but at the end of the day the post American world will be more supportive and less combative recognizing that a successful competitor is a good customer.
As we recognize ourselves in others, release our ego’s need to be right and embrace harmony over victory our lives become more enjoyable. America’s western economic model is the example for the world. Each of us is an example to our world. The joy within us is as contagious as success. Cooperation brings joy, domination fosters fear. Our successful world leaders recognize this truth and are embracing collaboration as the next step in our human evolution.
Learn more about Spirit, Spiritual Mind, the One Mind, Spiritual Law, Universal Intelligence, The Science of Mind and the power within you at a Center For Spiritual Living near you or online starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.