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A Few Words on Walls

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

The world’s population is constantly in motion. Individuals move about, communities migrate. The earliest humans followed their food and expanded their horizons seeking balance between population and resources. We are by our nature, immigrants. Spirit lives through us, and our migratory nature, our freedom of choice. Spirit by its nature is always expanding its store of experiences through our individual thoughts and actions, our migrations from the now to the new. Ironically, the infinite employs our seemingly finite lives and our desire to explore to fulfill its infinite self.

Pioneers moving into new territories always alter the status quo even if there were no others there before them. When we hunt wild game or put a plow into the ground we forever alter that which was into something new. Move into ground already populated and the encounter alters both populations irreversibly. Empires around the world and throughout time have grown powerful only to slip quietly into the pages of history through the evolution of human endeavors.

Some would have us believe that building a wall can stop Spirit’s infinite exploration. China built a wall that today stands as a marvel of engineering; it serves no other purpose. The Soviet Union built a wall in Berlin that today looks out at us from blocks of plastic or dangles in the form of necklaces or earrings. A wall in Jerusalem is said to be effective, but security is an illusion. There is no denying the threat there, but it is the Spiritually loving nature of Jerusalem’s people that keeps the peace.

The exercise of building a U.S./Mexico border wall deserves exploration if for no other reason than to expose its lunacy. Start with the placement of the wall; it seems impractical to build it in the middle of the Rio Grande River where some of the border runs, so it would have to be completely on U. S. soil, probably some distance back from the river so as to not impede its enjoyment as a leisure destination. Unless the U.S. is willing to cede the land and river south of the wall to Mexico along with all that leisure economy, anyone approaching the wall will be in the U.S. and protected by its laws. Therefore any personal injury related to the wall will be eligible for litigation in a U.S. court.

The specter of litigation suggest the need for insurance, and insurance requires premiums that in this case would be an obligation of American taxpayers. Litigation also requires attorneys who would also be an obligation of American taxpayers. So in review the wall is not even built yet and it is generating income for insurance companies and attorneys. Care to hazard a guess as to which insurance companies and which attorneys will be reaping in the profits at taxpayer expense? Can you say political cronyism? Remember the phrase, it is recurrent.

One Presidential candidate indicates his wall will be has high as a jumbo jet hanger. The walls of that hanger stand because they are part of a self-supporting system of interlocking perpendicular walls and roof trusses. To approximate that level of support our wall will need to be constructed as a zig-zag, a method popular with rural rail fences. The zig-zag pattern also lends itself to being easily guarded providing clear observation of its base from stations located at the apexes, not to mention clear fields of fire allowing for slaughter of any undocumented interlopers or innocent wanderers within the security zone. Of course all this being on U.S. soil in close proximity to a recreational area to some, may be problematic.

Staffing those guard stations will require a small army, well actually a rather large army. It does not seem prudent to tie up U.S military assets for such a static mission, besides, the same candidates avowing the wall seem to have more worldly uses for the military. Private contractors usually come into consideration for this type of roll. They have already made major inroads into the taxpayer funded privatization of the prison industry, and administering punishment without the inconvenience of due process is more suited to use of a corporate entity that can be scape-goated without prosecuting the principles who would simply reappear as a new corporation carrying on the mission. Who would these principles likely be? Remember the phrase?

So now we have seen how billions of taxpayer dollars will be funneled into the hands of political cronies and the wall is still at best a dream on paper or worse a deranged concept in the mind of someone the gullible world takes seriously. And we have not even brought in the materials needed to build the wall; another opportunity to pay off one of the good old boys. The wall will require continuous maintenance and a road system to provide it. The maintenance company will require depots, security, staffing, and a friend in Washington.

It is asserted that Mexico will pay for the wall. If so it is likely Mexico will want the job of building to benefit Mexican construction companies. So now we are looking at Mexican companies using more than likely Mexican crews to build a wall on U. S. soil. The Mexican crew will want Mexican comforts; food, entertainment, families, etcetera. The building of a wall on U.S. soil will bring more Mexicans into the country than are already coming. Of course there is an alternative; Mexico could just say “NO.” In fact, it already has.

Mexico is a fabulous country with wonderful people and vast resources. People in the United States deride Mexico’s government but take advantage of its shortcomings to exploit its underserved population. We in the U.S. want low prices in our supermarkets, at the gas pump and on and on. Low-cost labor is key to these wants and conditions in Mexico drive an endless supply northward. We in the U.S. say our form of government is better, but the example we set is far from ideal.

We show the world a dysfunctional Congress that refuses to act because it does not like the color of our President’s skin. We show the world a government that funnels taxpayer money into private schools to dumb down our disadvantaged populations and dis-educate our future leaders with fairy tales and propaganda. We show the world leadership that believes might makes right and that we can bomb the world into peaceful coexistence held together by force. All to benefit that special group, remember the phrase?

Fences may make good neighbors, but walls divide people and force tribal thinking. Walls are human concepts built by people with delusions they can power their way through fear. Their belief in fear perpetuates itself. When we embrace our Spiritual nature, fear is dissolved by its infinite love. Love brings walls down, brings people together, and peace held together unconditionally.

Learn more about Spiritual Truth and infinite Love at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

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A Matter of Perception

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Gold and white, or blue and black. It’s all in our individual perception. All the buzz in social media this week over the colors of a dress demonstrates a basic challenge in human relationships. Clearly, even when presented with the exact same information, our individual interpretations can produce dramatically different conclusions.

It seems that for almost every question there are at least two viable options and camps of supporters for both. In his nineteenth century illuminations on ethics, John Stuart Mill described the term “Utilitarianism” as basically falling similarly into two camps, Rule utilitarianism and Act utilitarianism, allowing for a universe of moderations in between.

On the one hand a society is best served by establishing a well thought through set of rules that when followed unerringly by all would create the most happiness for the most people. The polar opposite forgoes establishing formal rules allowing that individual acts are judged by their effect on society. The latter position allows for circumstances to guide values while the former simply demands adherence.

Reasonable people quickly agree that neither position in its extreme is perfect for all occasions. Some formal legal system is required to conduct commerce and maintain a level playing field in complicated social structures. Two farmers however, should be able to trade some grain for a pig with a simple hand shake if both are agreeable to the terms.

Each of us is free to see the dress as gold and white, black on blue or some other combination because we have accepted something between “rule” and “act” utilitarianism. If we agreed that the designer’s proclamation that the dress is blue and black established the only accepted interpretation, the gold and white camp would be in violation of the rule.

The gold and white camp would then be left with two choices; deny the evidence of its own eyes or live in violation of the rule. The former solution provides fodder for a lifetime of therapy, the latter leads to deterioration of respect for the rule and rules in general and eventually anarchy. From this simple example it becomes clear that a strict “rule” society is bound for self-destruction by its self-imposed rigidity.

Our spiritual nature is “rule” based and has only one rule, Love. This core rule allows our human experience to be the chaotic adventure it is because Love can only give us what we expect to receive, and its first gift is freedom. We have freely created our own anarchy by denying the core rule.

Who we are may seem to be an accident of fate, but only if we define ourselves in terms of what we believe and how we perceive the world we live in. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. When we forget that truth and become immersed in the world of effects enveloping us we surrender to the idea of fate. Remembering our faith, our true nature, provides an avenue back to self-determination.

When through our exercise of choice we judge the acts of others by their effect on society, whether or not the result is more happiness, we move back toward the core rule. A couple who choose to share their lives and contribute to their community may do so in violation of some human sourced moral standing, but that standing aside do no harm and much good. This is demonstrating love, the core rule. The act is beneficial, the rule if strictly enforced would harm the couple and provide no appreciable benefit to society.

The rule of love gives us freedom because nothing else would be love. Freedom gives us anarchy because nothing else would be freedom. It is no wonder then that life is a paradox. Spirit or God if you prefer, set us free to find our own way home with no manual or directions. We have the basic intelligence of the universe because we are all expressions of the One Mind, and we have the freedom to use our universal wisdom or deny it.

Whether the dress is one color or another is hardly important. How we choose to accept the interpretation of others is. Are we willing to allow the same value to the interpretations of others as we assign to our own? Does one cause harm and the other not? Is any perceived harm real or simply a violation of someone’s rule? What does the rule of Love demand?

Our freedom to choose may seem a cruel joke when we consider the Universe could have made us adherent to its core rule and saved a history of strife. But what history would there be then if instead of our freedom we were created to conform. Spirit itself is required to conform to its only rule and created us as a means to explore the consequences of freedom.

Our history is often marked by our blunders but also by our triumphs. Every heroic odyssey starts with a disruption of the norm. We heroically stand one more time than we are knocked down and do so over and over again. The Rule of Love is our undeniable core. We have strayed from it on a million roads and travel millions more seeking our return.

We can all agree it is a dress. We can agree that there appear to be two principle colors in its palette. If we start there and understand that everything else is subject to personal interpretations fueled by vastly different experiences, perhaps we can choose to be guided by the only rule that matters, the one that created us all.

Is Spirit doomed by its rigid adherence to its one rule? Only if unconditional love can ever be wrong. Spirit is infinite and thus immortal. What appears as chaos from our limited perspective is simply a neutral element within the greater soul.

Learn more about your true nature, your freedom to choose and the Rule of Love at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

 

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Thumbtack Prosperity

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

There is a bulletin board in the mail room of a South Florida community association. Maybe the one you live in. Most of the items pinned to the board are placed there by the association’s management, neatly placed with a push pin placed at each corner. There is a desk organizer on a shelf at the bottom of the bulletin board containing pens, pencils and a generous supply of push pins.

With some regularity others have occasion to place notices on the bulletin board and here is where an interesting phenomena frequently occurs. Although there is an ample supply of push pins readily available and easily accessible, these notices are haphazardly pinned to the board with push pins purloined from the corners of other notices. The other notices are not left hanging with one corner loose, rather their pins are removed and re-pinned so that two notices are left raggedly posted by one pin at the center in the top and one at the center in the bottom.

Eventually it is not unusual to find more notices all suspended by a single pin while the reservoir in the organizer remains overflowing. A lazy person would use the pins from the organizer, even if only one; it would be easier than rearranging the ones already in use. A deep seeded sense of lack demonstrates as the appearance of poverty even where abundance is within arm’s reach.

Our true beliefs manifest in the simplest ways. Being alert to the clues, even the little ones, can change the course of our lives. Imagine if one day the persons denying themselves the use of the ample supply of push pins awakens to their folly. Out of pride they may continue as they always have and there would be no change, except that now they know there is a better way so there is that extra baggage to tote around.

Say they realize it is easier and neater to use the extra pins and start doing so right away. They will have allowed themselves to release an old idea and move into a new experience. In the world of dragon fighting mythologies this is the single armor scale being torn away; an occurrence that never ends well for the dragon.

Where else in their lives have they been denying their wealth? Where have they been hording an endless supply? Is there something holding you back, or is it something you are holding on to? What clues are you overlooking, and what are you ready to let go of?

Many of us go through our entire live never knowing we have control over how we feel, never knowing we can change the course we are on at any time. Sometimes we need an ah-ha moment to stimulate our attention. Nature has many tools to bring that about; some more appealing than others. One choice we can make is to be proactive by employing our own tools first.

Tool number one, Understanding our True Nature: These individual lives we are living are just cells in a much bigger organism. The evidence? Everything that lives finds a way to cluster with other living things, we are collaborative beings, suggesting a connections that transcends the physical. We have commonalities that we build upon. At basic levels we are all alike, laughing, crying, lusting, caring etcetera.

Tool number two, Understanding the nature of that bigger organism. It is Love. The evidence? It gives us whatever we believe. It does not judge us. It just gives. It is infinite. There is no outer edge. Wherever we perceive an outer edge, it continues beyond our comprehension.

Tool number three, pathfinders. Pathfinders are those in our acquaintance that have already traveled the road ahead, they know where the water holes are and the quick sand. Every spiritual practice has pathfinders. Whether they are called minister, monk, rabbi, mullah, or friend they can help us see things we have been overlooking or didn’t even know to look for.

The universe overflows with push pins. We can use them or not. We can make our lives better or continue as we are. We can use the tools at our disposal or continue scratching at the dirt with our hands. Still not sure you can do it? Stick a pin in that doubt and talk with a pathfinder. You can always come back to your status quo, though never quite the same.

Learn more about your true nature, your connection to the infinite and the pathfinders available to you at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

 

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The Hurricane Heart

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Spring in hurricane country is the time to buy a little extra in preparation for the storm everyone hopes does not appear. Prudent shoppers pick up an extra can of beans, bag of rice or bottled water every time they shop to squirrel away in the pantry or a corner of the garage. These non-perishable extras are accumulated bit by bit into and through the season so that they do not have to be purchased during a panic rush ahead of an eminent storm bearing down.

Our bodies do something similar with the food we eat. Anything not needed for immediate energy is stored as fat for later consumption. And like our imprudent shopper who waits for the storm before stocking up, our bodies also have a panic mode. Our bodies sense when they are not getting enough good nutrients and begin diverting available stocks to storage and shutting down non-essential functions to conserve fuel.

A result of our body’s survival mechanism is a lack of energy and enthusiasm for the things that make living fun, productive and generally worthwhile. We also experience a buildup of fat because our body-mind consortium is convinced there is a scarcity of nutrients even when there is sufficient supply relative to our reduced rate of consumption.

Is it possible that our hearts follow the same survival practices? Do our hearts begin hoarding love when they sense an insufficient supply of renewing love? Does our heart turn inward withholding its stock of love out of fear there may not be enough? Does it harden itself developing an insulating layer that actually suppresses our ability to receive additional consignments of love?

Answering yes to any of the questions above allows an insight into the behavior of the hurtful people in our lives. We are not designed to live without love, it is crucial to our existence. Love is the natural state of the Universe, the prime directive, the Word of God. Our every belief is made true by the love of a Universe that can only say yes to our stated desires. Sensing little or no source of love, our hearts redirect their love impulses toward providing for themselves at the cost of free circulation and eventual self consumption.

The inward focused heart loses its ability to recognize love directed toward it. It becomes self concerned, self-fixated and numb to any attempts to approach it. It becomes hard in its attempt to retain its self-perceived threatened supply. It consumes itself growing more dry and brittle as its stores evaporate.

The ironic paradox is that our fearful heart has its belief fulfilled by a loving Universe that continues to provide in accordance with our beliefs. The 1964 movie “Fate is the Hunter” centered around an airplane that crashed because a cascade of design faults indicated to the pilot that his one good engine was on fire causing him to shut it down and force an unnecessary emergency landing. Our fearful hearts likewise trigger a cascade of reasonable responses to increasingly inaccurate information driving us into undesirable results.

When the inevitable storm hits and the electricity goes off, we quickly eat our perishable foods first saving the dry and canned goods for the extended recovery period. Eventually conditions improve and a new normal emerges. If starving our bodies consume the food in our digestive systems before eventually tapping their fat reserves. Ideally starvation is avoided and our metabolisms stabilize. Our hearts act only on what they know, and continue consuming themselves.

If there is no storm, we use up our stores in the following months clearing our pantries to be refreshed the next year. If we are not faced with starvation our metabolisms adjust and our energy levels return to normal. Proper diet and exercise eventually reduce stored up fats and the resulting new eating habits help us maintain healthy bodies. Our hearts respond to our beliefs, new beliefs open new possibilities.

When we accept the possibility that our beliefs are erroneous, that our instruments are giving us false readings and what we are doing cannot continue we become open to new solutions. If we allow some small part of our self-directed love to be shared with others in some way, we open our pantry and provide an avenue for circulation to resume. Love wants to circulate, its natural state is to be in motion. A tiny crack in our armor erodes into a torrent of love pouring out and rejuvenating our heart with its flow. In response the Universe pours more love in and the cycle accelerates and expands into the limits of our belief.

Unrestricted by our interference love is self-perpetuating and infinitely expansive. Our hearts soften and expand their capacity to absorb becoming a conduit drawing love in as quickly as it can pump love out. When the next storm hits, our pantry will be overflowing, our bodies will be lean and our experience energized and fulfilling as we lead, respond and identify with the power of love.

Explore more about the power of love and our natural state at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org and CSLFTL.org.

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Change the Channel

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Another senseless act of terrorism has the media in an uproar this morning. What we know at this moment is that twelve are dead and there are four additional victims of apparently two shooters with automatic weapons in a Paris magazine office. Those are the horrible facts of an unfolding story. Yet with hours of air time to fill the pundits are rolling out every shade of speculation, comparison and party line talking point they can exhume.

These are “news” programs so it is necessary for them to report the facts and they are commentators so it is expected they would provide some background and comparison. What is important is that we as viewers recognize the immediacy of the reporting and the total lack of contextual information available at the scene. In a few minutes of viewing the same several seconds of footage have been run repeatedly as the commentators voiced their speculations. Finally, breaking news, they now had an audio clip where gunfire could be heard in the distance.

Time to change the channel. Do we really need to hear a recording of the gunfire? Do we need to experience the terror of the victims to get the point of the futility of the act? Is it really breaking news that this extra layer of experience is now available to us? Change the channel and redirect our thinking to know that Spirit is fully present in the medical workers tending the victims, in the police as they work their process and especially for the families of the fallen as they come to grips with this unexpected turn in their lives.

This is the news today, but it reflects the news of our daily lives. How often do we react armed with just a handful of facts and buckets of speculation? How often do we tell our stories making the fish bigger and bigger with each reiteration? How often do we fill in the lack of information with beliefs that have not been vetted or even appropriate to the occurrence?

Our heads are filled with pundits. Our parents, families, co-workers and friends are happy to share their opinions and influence our beliefs. “Ain’t it awful” is easy to fuel and popular in every social setting. We seek out the gory details and compete to escalate the horror.

Research indicates that likeminded people reinforce their opinions in the direction of their extremes pulling factions of reason farther and farther apart. Change the channel. If an extreme position is your fate, then surround yourself with loving people. Shun the company of speculation, suspicion and fear. We can equip ourselves with an air of empowerment that allows us to experience the effects of the world without losing our connection to our spiritual selves.

We can walk among the disenfranchised, the fearful and lost souls of our communities and be a beacon of Truth. “Onward Christian Soldiers” speaks to this truth in the form of song reminding us that our Christ nature is not defined by our crucifixions, but by our resurrections. Be aware, be engaged, and most important be brave enough to change the channel.

Learn more about your spiritual truth, spiritual empowerment and your Christ nature at a Center For Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

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The Evolution of Employer – Employee Relations

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

The Supreme Court case brought on behalf of Peggy Young who sued United Parcel Service because it would not assign her to light duty when she was pregnant opens a wider question regarding employee – employer relations. Whether UPS did anything legally wrong is yet to be decided, but common practices lends support to their position and a ruling in Ms. Young’s favor will send a noticeable ripple through corporate board rooms.

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution there were no rules in the workplace beyond those established by employers. Show up on time, stay until you are told you can leave and never forget you can be replaced in a heartbeat. Contrary to human nature, human beings were the least valuable component of the industrial machine.

In the agrarian cultures that preceded the rise of the machines beasts of burden were highly prized and well cared for. It was not only humane, but practical. A sick or injured animal could not pull its load and was not easily replaced. Human employees on the farm or ranch often enjoyed a family type environment with its wide range of relationships and usually with their dignity honored. (The notable exception of human bondage notwithstanding)

Perhaps the birth of industrial societies occurring in Great Britain where a hierarchal class system was already entrenched lent direction to how employee – employer relationships developed. The cascade of events that brought more and more people into cities eventually created a critical mass of people unaccustomed to what was in effect several generations of evolution crammed into a few decades. The parallel development of vast colonial empires crushing indigenous populations against the explosion of industrial might fueled an upheaval of humanity and an unnatural distortion of human nature.

In our natural evolution competition for resources always played an important role. Controlling a water way meant having water. Ruling over fertile farm lands or abundant game lands meant having food. Being physically attractive or capable expanded ones choices of family expansions. As we evolved into urbanized societies political power and influence grew in importance. In the Industrial Revolution, the factory hierarchies encompassed all of these features pitting worker against worker to achieve recognition and reward within the artificial environment called “the company.”

The company became God and quickly it was lost to many that God had a Board of Directors and that Board answered to investors ̶ all of whom are human. All decisions deferred to the well-being of the company and the human beings at all levels of the matrix forgot their humanity. The intervening history between then and now has been the story of our return to the truth.

All work place rules and by extension civil laws are enacted in response to some occurrence or perceived possible occurrence that is harmful to the enacting society. Some are logical and make good sense surviving the tests of time. “No Smoking” in the gun powder factory still holds up, and “check your weapons” makes good sense although admittedly argumentative in some circles today.

The pell-mell race to industrial riches threatened to trample human nature, but that nature is a tough bird and the excesses soon enough proved to be too much. Work place accidents, poorly built products and simply the growing pains of technology triggered human responses to the robber baron attitudes that drove the evolution. There are no heroes without a few villains and the growth of industrial ineptitude awoke a new spiritual awareness in the human family.

Reclaiming their humanity laborers joined together in labor unions and through often violent strikes and bitter court battles curbed the arrogant demigods of industrialization. Demonstrating an irony only humans can manifest, the unions too forgot their mission and strayed into excesses that triggered their own demise. However with both sides of the coin having peaked in turn, a somewhat tempestuous middle ground has risen and tempered the extremes.

Corporations have proven to be false gods with scores crumbling into dust as so many statues of fabricated divinity have through time. Rules that restrict whom can work, once commonplace, get little support today. Time off is still culturally regulated with Western Europe seemingly much more human valued than typical American corporate thinking, and here is where we can begin to realign ourselves citing precedent.

American workers still labor under the delusion that everyone can rise to the ranks of the Rockefellers and foolishly shun regulations that might block their ascension. They are fighting the last war, something every generation falls prey to. The great do not become great by copying what others have done. Greatness is bestowed upon those who surpass the norm in spite of its challenges.

The great of today carve success out of a well if sometimes burdensomely regulated environment. Ben and Jerry created the best ice cream in the world using ingredients that are safe to consume and equipment that is safe to work with. Costco enjoys land office business with a workforce that enjoys being part of the customer’s experience and knows the company appreciates the employee’s contribution to the success.

The railroads of old did not embrace the Westinghouse air brake because it was safer; they did so because it reduced losses and lawsuits and boosted profits, but it is safer and we all benefit from it. Safety regulations provide a cushion between innovation and investors providing the impetus to invest until the market proves itself. The auto industry did not adopt seat belts because they had to or because they saved lives; they did so because they boosted sales. Safety innovation continues to drive auto advancements more than cosmetic changes ever did.

Successful corporations today recognize the value of their human assets. Our European counterparts have pioneered worker rights and set a high bar for their American and developing world cousins to match. If corporations want the rights of personhood they face the responsibility of personal relations. The “Golden Rule” applies. Treat others as you would have them treat you! Rules that protect people are good for the company. Rules that demean people demean the company. Short term profits have long term consequences to both the bottom line and the eternal soul.

Rules that empower ineffectual supervisors serve only to reinforce incompetence. Awakening spirituality erases incompetence because it cannot exist in a spiritually empowered environment. Corporations who empower their human assets thrive on their empowerment. UPS like most companies has developed and adopted many good and reasonable rules and policies to protect itself and its investors. Perhaps they will be forced by a court decision to reexamine their motivations and recognize the future includes evolution. Perhaps they will come to that realization on their own. Either way, evolution is inevitable and the winners will adapt.

Learn more about Spiritual empowerment at a Center For Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

 

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Ferguson Is Burning

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Ferguson is burning tonight and the nation looks for answers. Two sides are emerging on the outer edges of the question with most of us as usual somewhere in-between. One extreme stands in the name of law and order and their arguments seem reasonable from their perspective. On the other extreme lie unanswered questions and a craving for justice. The questions too seem reasonable from that perspective and most of us slide back and forth hoping the status quo will reassert itself and normalcy will re-emerge.

About 2500 years ago Plato recorded the thoughts of his teacher Socrates including his allegory of the cave that offers an interesting look at perspective and our social environment’s impact on its development. The cave was home to several persons who for purposes of the illustration were restricted to observing shadows of objects and people upon the cave wall without ever knowing the source of the shadows or that they even were shadows. In their minds the shadows were the real world.

All of us have our own version of the cave in our story. The opinions of our elders, siblings and extended families helped shape our own world view. Our tribe was always right and those folks on the other side of the hill have always been misguided. How easy our lives could be if those views were flawless and capable of holding up to the light of truth. Like the shadows on the cave wall however, those misinformed beliefs we are often willing to die for evaporate without a trace when illuminated by the truth.

In the allegory of the cave one person is released and brought to the surface into the light of day. Socrates describes how that person’s vision would adjust to the new reality seeing less at first and gradually able to understand more and more of their new world. Our Spiritual awakening follows a similar route for most of us. At first the light of knowledge may be so blinding we are unable to see anything of our surroundings, but slowly we see shapes in the brilliance and reflections of things in pools of water or panes of glass.

Spiritually we begin to understand that those “others” are more like us than not. They need food and water, shelter and a reason to be. They seek the same answers we seek. They cry when sad and laugh and dance when happy. They are us in all but name and the name is self-chosen not imposed by any god. They may have emerged from a different cave where the shadows were given different names and different stories but they were still shadows and no more real than the shadows of our own past.

The light we walk into is the same light. Our truth is their truth. Our shadows are no more real than their shadows. As we explore this new understanding of truth together a new experience arises for each of us; one that releases the shadows of our past and embraces the new truth being revealed to us both.

In Ferguson the establishment of law and governance draws on generations of privilege and a mindset that leans toward interpretations of social rules as they understand them. They have fallen into the trap or cave where the story has become the rules exist to protect the enforcers of the rules. Government in their view serves the government first and begrudgingly serves the populace only as a means of maintaining the status quo. Protect people sure, but only so the people will continue to ignore the government and demand little of it. Provide services too, but only enough to remove cause for the people to demand more. Build a bridge for everyone’s convenience, but only if it improves commerce and profits. Maintaining the bridge is an expense less easily sold, because no one is inconvenienced and commerce is not impeded.

From the other cave comes the view that building a bridge should be undertaken an act of love that benefits everyone and that bridges should be maintained because not doing so is irresponsible, even hateful. The expense of bridge maintenance is both less than building a new bridge and the jobs created are permanent to the community bolstering its economy and self-image as the home of a well maintained bridge and not a run-down unsafe derelict of times past.

Privilege serves to protect privilege. In Ferguson reports indicate that promises were made and broken. The forces of privilege seem to have been numb to the effect of breaking those promises and responded to the predictable outcome with more rigidity standing on the rule of law rather than admitting responsibility and seeking an inclusive solution.

From the other perspective came that predictable outcome where once again it was proven the side of privilege cannot be trusted to comply with the simplest of concessions. The injection of violence and destruction in the face of pleas to remain peaceful only served to fuel demands for more rigidity and enforcement perpetuating the spiral of distrust.

There have been valiant efforts in Ferguson to break the cycle. These seldom make the headlines and should. The solutions lie in the field where our commonality brings us together and that is the headline. The field where past misconceptions, false stereotypes and erroneous common consciousness is heaped onto a bonfire to be burned out of our foundations freeing them to support the natural way of love. The field where we stand for peace, respect and understanding, and we celebrate that news as the path into the future.

When privilege understands its inherent responsibility to serve all mankind and those who see privilege as the problem understand their own power to create change; a shift of consciousness is inevitable. There is no one sided solution. Building a bridge requires designers, bankers, community leaders and laborers common and skilled. Remove any element and the bridge remains only an idea without form or worse; a shadow of a bridge doomed to fail when the light of truth illuminates it.

When those of us in the middle sliding back and forth realize that the status quo is shattered forever, that normal is in constant flux, and that change is the natural order of life; then we too grow our understanding, identify our commonalities outside our tribe and naturally accept the expansion of our community to include others once thought foreign and strange. Free of active suppression, the good from all our caves rises into the light of truth where we all see with common vision.

Human curiosity empties our caves one by one as those left behind wonder why the pathfinders have not returned, overcome their fear and follow into the light. Those unwilling to try eventually perish in their prisons and their fears and misconceptions die with them. Tonight Ferguson is burning, tomorrow it rebuilds as something between a fortress of fear and an inclusive community and a new normal emerges awaiting its next evolutionally push.

Learn more about your cave and the light beyond it at a Center For Spiritual Living near you or online starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

 

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Are You Thinking Forgiveness Is A Sign Of Weakness?

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Lust for revenge is embedded in our “common consciousness,” that collective memory or manual of human behavior we find so much support for in popular literature, myth and religion. Even traditional Spiritual teachings often find exceptions to their core curriculum in matters of “justice.”

Enlightened people from all paths have recognized the value of letting go and moving on. Ernest Holmes writes in the Science of Mind, “There is nothing to forgive, only a Truth to be revealed.” To forgive, we are accepting that something is apart from Spiritual experience and that duality thinking denies our Spiritual Truth.

Revenge is a poison that quietly erodes the spirit of the person who carries it. The action hero in the movies is driven to defy all manner of physical if not civil laws in the pursuit of a perceived justice, but they do so in an altered state of reality and with the help of movie magic. Real people make poor decisions, often deepen their pain and fuel the fires of internal discord long after the natural course of mourning could have moved them back toward normalcy.

We are trained from birth to rain death and destruction down upon our enemies. We are cheered and encouraged to punch hard, fast and often to leave our trespassers bloody and dazed to prove we are a force to be reckoned with. We are told we must be strong, but strong is seldom defined and our assumptions are usually wrong.

One mistaken assumption is that bending others to our will is an indication of strength. It is an illusion. Others may appear to bend to our will, but they are internally strong and not really changed. Another mistaken assumption is that we are motivated in revenge by love. We are motivated by fear. The fear that we appear weak; that we appear to not care enough to act, that we appear to not be in control.

Our Spiritual nature is to love. Spirit is love. The love that gives us everything we want, or at least what we believe we want. We are expressions of Spirit and know this because Spirit is infinite meaning we cannot be separate from it. Our freedom of choice allows us to act in defiance of our true nature and we can be very defiant.

We create civil laws to ensure human evolution is driven by our best ideas rather than the force of might. Violence takes strength but it is not strength. Violence is surrender to our most primitive fight or flight instincts. Strength is demonstrated when we turn away from violence, when we find the courage to forgive and move on. To do otherwise traps us in our past with no path into our future.

Tragic events require justice and our system of laws provides a method for justice to be served with minimal impact on the individuals charged with its enforcement. The police patrolman, or detective is only involved as a result of their profession and can act dispassionately while still being passionate about justice and compassionate in exercising their vocation. The judge and prosecutor go home at night knowing they have done their part but not consumed by their participation.

An individual who sets themselves to bring justice outside our system of laws becomes rooted in the injustice that initiated the revenge. They erode their own harmony and weaken their ability to heal. Forgiveness can only be practiced by the strong. Forgiveness places us into alignment with our Spiritual source; opens us to the flow of infinite power. And forgiveness is an inside job. Remember what Holmes said, “. . . only a Truth to be revealed.” To forgive someone else implies we have the right to judge them in the first place. We may like or dislike an action, but the person is an expression of Spirit the same as us. We are judging ourselves and we must forgive ourselves.

We must forgive ourselves for not being fast enough, not knowing enough, not being home enough or not seeing the clues before us. We must get comfortable with the fact that life evolves in spurts of unexpected episodes and we must be strong enough to recognize that all our good intentions aside, sometimes we simply cannot do enough. Nor are we supposed to have done more.

What we can do is accept our fear of being judged and release any perceived need to judge others. With that burden lifted we can face our fear and turn it into our strength. The strength to see the face of God in everyone and in our mirrors; then forgive ourselves for ever thinking it was ever any different.

Learn more about Spirit, Spiritual nature and the power of love at Center for Spiritual Living in your community or online starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

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The Circulatory Rule

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

We seem to live linier lives. We are born, mature, age and die. If that were the sum total of it linier thinking would certainly be the logical extension of that picture. Oddly, we often use that template as though it were the nature way of things. A preponderance of evidence suggests otherwise.

The Moon circles the Earth and our planet orbits the Sun. The Sun flows along as its Milky Way galaxy spins through space. Our own blood flows through a circulatory system filled with oxygen that gets converted to carbon dioxide, filtered and refreshed countless times throughout our lives.

Even our seemingly linier lives are segments within a cycle. Along the way to our eventual physical demise the majority of us have children who carry forward biological and environmental characteristics influenced by the past, but shaped in their future. Over generations the human race is evolving toward a Spiritual purity known only to Spirit itself before the human experiment was proposed; returning to its starting point.

During our short segment of this evolutionary journey we tend to lose sight or are never aware of the bigger picture. We gravitate toward short term goals and fleeting rewards. More affluent societies consume beyond all proportion to their numbers. Relationships are often shallow and unable to endure the normal bumps we encounter from day to day.

The phrase “He who dies with the most toys, wins,” is taken to be true and deserving of pursuit. We acquire things at the cost of prudent planning or reasonable considerations. We go into debt for houses that are too large, cars that are too fast and accessories designed to be obsolete long before they warrant replacement.

In this bigger picture even our money is cyclical. In the smaller picture our consumerism is dead end spending. On the Spiritual level the time and money we give away expands its impact and returns to us in its natural cyclical nature. The few dollars we release toward charitable goals not only benefits the recipients, but in doing so, stimulates local and global economies. It also establishes a relationship with Spiritual flow.

When we acquire goods for our own enrichment the flow of prosperity is stifled. Funds released without conditions flow unrestricted. Likewise freely given time reaps benefits of unpredictable prosperity returning to the giver. It is said that nature abhors a vacuum so visualize a catastrophic release of pressure from a vessel and the resulting impact of inrushing material to fill the void as an illustration of the prosperity cycle. The more released the greater the return.

Hoarding begets trash, confusion, vermin and a visit from the Health Department. Keeping a clean house, giving away redundant belongings and unlocking our wallets to good causes opens our consciousness to more good flowing through us. Volunteering is a natural human instinct. Before there was commercialism there was a natural need to connect with our fellow humans, pitching in and getting things done for the common good. This is our Spiritual self shining through, our natural way.

We often approach giving as a requirement; that is our segmented self not seeing the full cycle. Giving is the way of Spirit, the force of the Universe that gives us everything we believe we can have. Spirit gives with unconditional love, never questioning or judging our choices. When we hold back we are empowering fear and a belief in limitation. We are greater than that. We are Spiritual beings privileged to be having a human experience and demonstrating our recognition and connection to our origin by kicking down the barriers to our prosperity and letting it flow through us unobstructed. The cycle completes only to start again.

Learn more about the natural flow of prosperity and your Spiritual self at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org and CSLFTL.org.

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Election Day

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By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

Election Day is fast approaching and the rhetoric is ramping up. Every candidate and every issue being decided is flawed in some way. There has never been nor will there ever be a pure uncontaminated choice. Voters hoping to see a clear path illuminated by celestial beacons and a chorus of angles need to get comfortable with disappointment.

Politics is a reflection of our everyday lives. No issue stands alone isolated from the thousands of variables that factor into our decision processes. We want to conserve oil by driving less, but the soccer game ends at six and the kids need to get home to complete their science project so we drop them off only to drive back to the civic center for an important Council meeting. Our candidate of choice has a checkered past, but the opponent is a stuffed shirt for everything counter to our beliefs.

Do we stay home in frustration declaring the end of civilization is at hand or do we do the best we can with what we have to work with and stay alert for course corrections down range? Freedom includes not only the right but the responsibility to change our minds when new information emerges. Freedom cannot include the choice to remain unchanged, for that choice is self-imprisonment, the opposite of freedom.

Political choices become clearer when a few simple truths are observed. Listen to the arguments and ask: is this argument presenting verifiable facts that are pertinent to the question, or is it appealing to some perceived fear? If it is the former, how important are those facts to the big picture?

If a candidate for County Comptroller has been convicted of embezzlement; that might be important. If the same candidate has an issue with maintaining healthy body weight, it hardly bears the same significance unless your county’s taxes are paid in Twinkies. Fear is a powerful motivator and influencer of decisions, but seldom supported by facts.

Suggesting the candidate above lives a lavish lifestyle in spite of his company’s financial woes evokes a fear of dishonesty, but no facts. Has the company done well in the past allowing the principles to divest past compensation in wise investments? Does the company produce a product no longer in demand? Could the company be doing better or is it reflecting circumstances beyond its control? A case in point is the buggy whip manufacturer who invested in Ford Motor Company before closing his doors forever. The buggy whip employees may have been left out in the cold, but through no criminal act of their employer.

We frequently empower our fears when making life choices. It is a mistake. Fear is believing a false thing to be true. It is false because it has not happened, it is a projection of a possible future however unlikely. We accept a life partner because we are afraid we will die alone. Really? What are the odds that if we move on from our current arrangement that we will never find another circumstance with better experiences? It is a crowded planet, any soul unhappy alone has a target rich environment to explore for a solution.

Appealing to our fears is a proven campaign tool but one we all need to be wary of. There is no value to it. It builds walls that block the light of truth. It diverts our focus from the fear monger’s agenda. Look at the values the candidates support. Look past what they say they have done and look closely at what they have done.

Are their decisions helping to raise the tide or are they dragging an anchor? Are they claiming to help while stripping away rights and social safety nets? Are they moving human evolution forward or clinging desperately to an imagined “better time?” Are they building better prisons or setting free our souls to grow closer to our Spiritual Truth?

The barriers we erect for ourselves, the confines of our judgments are restrictions rather than protections. The outside always finds a way in. The walls only trap us inside and limit our maneuvering room.

It is the same in our lives as in politics. When we shut people out by our judgments we lose the value of their contributions, the lessons they bare. When we retard evolution by clinging to our past, our story, we deny ourselves the opportunity to create a better tomorrow. When we act to maintain our own power at the cost of other’s empowerment we deny both. When we succumb to fear we enable others to dictate our experiences and perpetuate stagnation.

In our lives there is a clear path illuminated by celestial beacons and lined by choirs of angles; it is revealed to us when we brush away the webs of lies and thickets of fear we build through our inattention to Truth. Politics may be a rougher row to hoe, but the same tools come into play.

If the path is unclear, change directions. If government is misdirected, realign it. If your values require force and fear to maintain, let them go. Spiritual values stand on their own without an army or police force to bolster them. Spiritual values are the natural state or existence, the light dispersing the shadow. Shatter the walls and let your light shine.

Learn more about Spiritual Truth and self-empowerment at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.

A New Thought Perspective