DO NOT JUDGE

I don't know about you, but I seem hardwired to be judgmental. Have I made any progress? Uhhhhh, who knows? I'm aware of it. I guess that’s moving in the right direction. Richard Rohr has written another amazing book called "The Naked Now" in which he addresses this problem and encourages us all, with God's help, to become "non-dualistic” thinkers. In other words stop thinking about who’s in and who’s out, who’s got it right and who’s got it wrong. Here's an excerpt from one of his talks...

“All spiritual teachers tell us “DO NOT JUDGE.” For those of us raised in a religious setting, this is very difficult. In a strange way, religion gave us all a Ph.D. in judgmentalism. It trained us very early in life to categorize, label, and critique. It told us all about worthiness and unworthiness. This judgmental mind told us what is right and wrong, who is gay or straight, and who is good or bad. This sort of mind never creates great people, because everybody has to fit into our way of thinking. At an early age our grid was complete. We had decided who fit in and who did not fit in. We fashioned our own little world.

“Christianity that divides the world in this manner and eliminates all troublesome people and all ideas different from our way of thinking cannot be mature religion. It cannot see the multiple gifts of each moment, nor the dark side that coexists with it. This mind does not lead us to awareness, and above all, this mind will find it impossible to contemplate. To practice awareness means you live in a spirit of communion; your world becomes alive and very spacious, and not divided by mere mental labels.”

Sun Shower

The bench waiting for someone to come and sit by the slow moving river and the coastal mountain views

The sun dripping through the trees along with the rain drops

The small creek gently babbling away with new energy from the rain

The silence, the stillness, with lovely interruptions from the birds, the wind, and the rain

I went back to the woods today

I went back to the woods today
To the ancient moss covered trees with their branches waving in the wind
To the ducks swimming silently on the black water of the pond
To the rain drops that eventually started to fall and make ripples on the surface of the water
To the peace below the distant road noise
To the birds singing their early spring songs
And to witness the buds on young trees ready to burst.

It had been a while
The door had been shut to this place
Today it was open
I didn't ask why, or ask for permission
I just went in
Without expectation or desire
Just to be
To enjoy

I had to learn to let go of this place, too
To allow Mystery to be Mystery and to be open to it everywhere
To be aware and be grateful for every breath no matter where I am
To be present to Presence in all places and every circumstance

I am learning to find Beauty, and to surrender to Love,
In the mundane and un-spectacular
In my living room and in cleaning out the cat box
In the car and in cutting the lawn
In negotiations and in making a sale
In traffic and in waiting for loved ones to arrive
and of course...in the woods

tug on the fraser at dusk

Stricken

I have really been aware of my own spiritual poverty lately (which is good - I think?). I really need the mercy and grace of God - continuously! Came across this quote from Merton - funny, but so true. Kind of sums it up:

"Mere commitment to a decent program of action does not lift the curse. Our real choice is between being like Job, who knew he was stricken, and Job's friends who did not know that they were stricken too-though less obviously than he. (So they had answers!)"

"Go to prayer seeking not prayer, but God."

"Go to prayer seeking not prayer, but God." James Finley - "merton's palace of nowhere"

I have spoken about this before, and just want to reiterate that learning to pray is a waste of time if my focus isn't on God. I get so frustrated with myself sometimes for not doing a better job of praying. What is that? I have even considered shutting this blog down, or at least changing the name because I don't want to mislead people. The important thing isn't prayer - it's God.

The goal and focus of my life is God and he will guide me in my relationship with Him. My job is to wait for God and to simply stay aware and awake and trust His action in me. That's it. That's what prayer and learning to pray is really all about.