Category: My thoughts

GLOBAL ONENESS DAY OCT 24

Saturday, Oct 24, 2015, is GLOBAL ONENESS DAY. Founded by Barbara Marx Hubbard and her Humanity’s Team eight years ago, it is being honored by Iyanla Vanzant, Desmond Tutu, Michael Beckwith, Marianne Williamson, Gray Zukav, Ken Wilber, Jean Houston, Ervin Laszlo, Neale Donald Walsch, Nassim Haramein, Dean Radin, Doreen Virtue, Patricia Cota-Robles, Andrew Harvey, James O’Dea and Matt Kahn, Centers for Spiritual Living and many others.

Below is the Global Oneness Declaration. It’s well thought out and worth reading.

You are being invited to “own” Oneness, especially on this day, in your own personal way. It’s a wonderful thing to do, and a good and necessary beginning. AND it’s only a beginning. For you mature metaphysicians who make up the bulk of recipients of these mailings, I urge you to go beyond this very important first step by noticing where your thinking differs with Oneness, examining and appropriately changing your thinking if it is not aligned with Oneness–and then extending this change in attitude to a change in your actions. The realization and affirmation of Oneness cannot save our world or change our lives until we make Oneness the basis for our actions.

Are you willing to take just one of your beliefs that divides you from others into prayerful contemplation for the purpose of finding a better basis for dealing with people and events in your life? We’re talking here about beliefs such as (we all have some):

  • “Competition is necessary”
  • “There isn’t enough for everybody”
  • “You (or we) are limited in some way”
  • “Someone (or something) has caused you injustice”
  • “I’m all alone”

If you accept this invitation, choose one belief/attitude you have that’s not aligned with Oneness and give it some serious thought, make a decision to honor not only the concept but the absolute truth of Oneness, and then start acting from that decision. It’s the only way we can change our world and our Lives. It’s not easy, yet it’s the only way. And it’s worth it!

If you decide to begin acting from Oneness rather than how this crazy culture we live in tells us to do Life, I’d love to hear from you about your experiences and your questions!

With reverence for the Oneness of Life and the part of It that You Are,
Nancy

ONENESS DECLARATION

I declare:

  1. That the message We Are All One, interrelated, interconnected and interdependent, with God/Life/One-another, is the one spiritual message that the world has been waiting for to bring about loving and sustainable answers to humanity’s challenges.
  2. That the world does not have to be the way it is – and that individual people can change it, using the power of spiritual citizenship.
  3. That humanity is good and has unlimited potential, and that social transformation starts with personal transformation. I therefore recognize the importance of connecting with my Divine Essence and inner wisdom throughout my life’s journey; allowing the finest and the highest levels of human potential to flourish for the benefit of all.
  4. That my aspirations support spiritual principles, global ethics and universal values such as respect, justice, peace, dignity, freedom, responsibility and cooperation that underlie this declaration.
  5. That human beings need each other to survive on this planet. I recognize that we are all in this together and that community flourishes as we learn about each other and revel in the wonder and beauty of our diversities. I declare that I am playing my part to help to bring about a culture in which we, the peoples of the world, can address our common global concerns in an holistic, positive and transforming way and live together in peace with one another.
  6. That Oneness contains All of life – also the parts that we regard as the “other”. I realize that wholeness and togetherness can only be experienced through the recognition of the uniqueness, beauty and purpose of all aspects of life and that this recognition starts with my Self.
  7. That I am part of the emerging consciousness that promotes a spirit of openness, enquiry, connection and relationship with myself and the entire universe and who continues to recognize the wonder, beauty and mystery of it all.
  8. I support Global Oneness Day that has been established for all of humanity to come together each year as one human family, to discuss, celebrate and experience Oneness with the Divine, each other and all of life.
  9. That the time for change is now.

Sign the declaration by going to this website: http://www.humanitysteam.org/sai/oneness-petition/document

MOTHER LOVE

In honor of our mothers on this Mother’s Day weekend, I dedicate this May note to Love—the maternal kind of Love. (I am capitalizing it because it is one of the attributes of God–unconditionally pure, whole and always present to us.)  Below this note is a Mothers Day message I gave at OSC in 2011.

Mother Love is an action verb, much more than a mouthed sentiment of affection.  It is the kind of love that responds to us immediately and fully when we ask for help.  It’s the kind of Love that absolutely and unconditionally accepts us, exactly as we are.  (Part of the function of Father Love in psychological terms is to push and pull us to grow and improve; Mother Love oozes unconditional validation.)

Love expands.
Love opens our hearts to more in so many ways (more of everything—both joy and pain).

  • Love expands our ability to love ourselves as well as others
  • Love expands the lives of those we love
  • Love expands our relationships
  • Love expands our world — and the whole world!
  • Love expands our health—there is nothing enough love can’t heal!
  • Love expands our feelings & experiences
  • Love expands our thinking and attitudes
  • Love expands our abilities to accept, to grow, to evolve
  • Love expands our ability to truly be and express ourselves
  • Love expands our prosperity
  • Love feels good!
  • BECAUSE LOVE PUTS US IN THE FLOW OF LIFE!

To further realize how valuable acting with Love is, we can take a look at its opposite:  withholding love contracts everything in our lives, including the possibilities and potentialities for our lives.  It puts a kink in the Flow of Life’s Energy.

Yes, there is the risk of experiencing pain when we open ourselves up. But considering the alternative, we don’t really have a choice if we want to have a life that is anywhere near being happy and fulfilled.  OPEN YOUR HEART TODAY—A GOOD PLACE TO START IS WITH YOUR MOTHER!

My Love to You,
Nancy

Link to Sunday morning, May 2011.

During this Mother’s Day talk, I refer to a Rembrandt painting. Here’s a link to further information: The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Prodigal Son

What do you really think!

Greetings Dear Friends,

As Emerson said, “Thought rules the world.” Since wintry March encourages introspection, perhaps we might want to look at our deepest-held thoughts and beliefs about Life and how It works. Simple subject, no?! Let’s see if we can simplify it for our consideration:

Below is a shortened version of what Ernest Holmes, author and founder of the book and spiritual philosophy called The Science of Mind, stated as his beliefs. It is a reduction and summary of 13 original statements Holmes wrote for the Science of Mind Magazine many years ago.

  • I believe in ONE God expressing through every living being.
  • I believe that God is personal to everyone and makes Itself known to all who recognize Its presence.
  • I believe that God is love and only creates out of a desire to express love.
  • I believe and trust that God has in mind the highest and greatest good for every person and is always seeking to bring that good into their life.
  • I believe that our thought is creative and that how we choose to think creates our personal experience.
  • I believe that by changing the way we think, we can affect our lives in a healing and positive way.
  • I believe in the unity of all life and the immortality of the individual soul forever unfolding.
  • I believe in the eternal goodness, the eternal Loving-Kindness, and the Givingness of life to all.

I, Nancy, believe this list covers the basic truths about Life, and that it has the potential to uncover any conflicts in thinking about what Life is that may be keeping one from living her/his ideal life. Questions or comments? I’m available by email or phone. I will also be happy to furnish Holmes’ original, complete statement to anyone who wants it.

EnJOY!

Nancy

Let Love Shine

Dear Friends,

Happy February and happy Life to you! This month we celebrate Love—with very good reason, for Love is the greatest expression of Life there is! A century ago, Thomas Troward defined for us these Seven Qualities of God: Life, Love, Light, Power, Peace, Beauty and Joy. (Longer lists have been compiled—a case could be made for adding Harmony, for instance, although I believe it is implicit in Peace and in Beauty. I like the conciseness of this list.)

How can one best celebrate Life with Love? Let’s change one word: We celebrate Life AS Love. We BE Love. Again, the how question arises: “how do we do that?” We can celebrate the easy answer to that question, because we don’t need to find or create or become love; we already are Love. Troward’s list points out that Love is a natural element of who we are, for each of us is made in the image and likeness and out of the substance of God.

We already are love. What we need to do if we want to express Love is to let it shine, as our old Sunday school song says: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!”

Let Love Shine

All that is necessary to express Love’s powerful and healing energy is to remove from our thinking anything that disagrees with it. As we replace our thoughts of judgment, lack and its accompanying jealousy and competition, anger and resentment, we will find ourselves naturally floating in the Allness of God’s Goodness; the seven qualities will be showing up in our individuated, personal lives!

When we live AS love and compassion, we live in peace—and in vital, personal fullness!

Be kind and be well,
Nancy

Greetings in Oneness,

There is One Life

This beautiful prayer is a powerful foundation for our lives in this new year or any time, for bringing ourselves into an attitude of really accepting the Truth that Life is one, is good and is present to us puts us in a place where Life can respond to our desires for good with an emphatic “Yes!”

When we turn our attention to the Truth this prayer presents, we withdraw energy from those human truths that generate fear and distrust, giving us a perspective in which we are better able to resolve them. Just as we can’t look in opposite directions at the same time, neither can we think opposing thoughts at the same time. The energy we invest in our choice of a recipient of our attention is a powerful force in this one life we share. Let’s together choose the Higher Truth that lets love reign!

May your every day be blessed by Truth,
Nancy

I WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Holly

‘Tis the wonderful season in which we relax our day-to-day focus on production to celebrate our relationships–to remember our friends and family and the value they have added to our lives. The very purpose behind the giving of gifts is to honor these connections; without the intention of this recognition, an exchange of gifts becomes frivolous and meaningless! And without a desire to honor our connection with each other, holiday social activities can exhaust us rather than foster a renewal of our spirits.

Holidays –holy days or “whole-y” days–are days set aside to recognize our Whole Selves. They provide time and space in which to remember that we are beings of Spirit as well as physical beings with our physical needs. They are days for honoring our spirits and sustaining our Inner Selves with our dearest nourishment: connectedness and love.

What better symbol to remember our love and to facilitate the opening of our hearts than that of a newborn child, with its pure love and that love’s powerful potential to displace human fears and attitudes of competition in our world. Whether it’s the Christian Baby Jesus or any newborn child, its promise is the hope that love will reign.

I wish to take this opportunity in this season of love and new beginnings to say to you, one and all, that I love you—all of you–my friends and my family (known and unknown, for we are all one) and including those who have taken actions that have hurt me. Everyone that has been a part of my life has influenced a part of me, and has brought me to this blessed moment of complete freedom to love and to BE love.

My Christmas wish is that this season and new year be one of greater freedom for you and all humankind. I am excited and hopeful for us as we experience the current protests–through non-violent participation (yeah!) or just through concerned and connected observation. I pray that our voices raised in distress over an absence of reverent love for each other may awaken in us a shift into a deeper consciousness of honoring our oneness.

Naming the thing we desire to change is necessary in order to bring our aware consciousness to a focus on its opposite; so yes, let us raise our voices in protest—and then, let us move into a wholehearted and whole-self honoring of the Higher Truth of our Connectedness! We each can embody connectedness and love through whatever honest expression our personal hearts dictate, each contributing our unique selves to Life’s wholeness. This is, after all, the gift each of us has to give.

May you find LOVE & CONNECTEDNESS this holiday season. May you experience the joy of BEING it! Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and Merry Christmas to all!

Nancy

THANKSGIVING: The Force Is With You

We say thank you because it’s good manners; it promotes positive relationships that have value for ourselves and our society. And when our gratitude is genuine, it feels good—it warms and opens our hearts. There’s more value: Did you know that the attitude of gratitude is a powerful energy — one you can use in your life?

Thanksgiving

Gratitude is an attractive energy–not just in the sense that it looks good (it does!)–but also in the sense that it attracts things and circumstances to us! When we are gratefully celebrating something, we become a magnetic force that draws more of that something to us. This is the basis for the Bible teaching “to those who have, more shall be given.”

Our attention—and our feelings regarding the object of our attention—create a powerful force field that draws to us people / things / experiences that have similar energy fields. Everything in Life has an energy field: people, plants, rocks—even relationships. Check this out for yourself regarding relationships by shifting your opinion of someone, and notice how your feelings change!

Appreciation means increase – ask any banker! When we are being thankful- grateful-appreciative, our hearts and our minds and our very lives open up to letting more of life in. Gratefulness makes us high-level receivers! What a wonderful world this would be if each of us lived this way most of the time!

I know, we feel we have to close ourselves off sometimes. This world is not always safe, and so for protection, we place armor between ourselves and the world at large. There is risk; many things are in play in our lives, and we don’t know them all. Nor do we know for sure what the response to any of our actions will be. Yet consider the benefits of being open. Life is constantly seeking expansion; it can be expanding your life, if you let it. An open appreciation for the object of your focus sets up an energetic draw of more of that good to you.

Are the likely benefits worth the risk of letting in pain? The maxim it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all is about this risk–a risk inherent in living in this world. Appreciating what’s here rather than focusing on the possibility of pain doesn’t guarantee happiness; it does strongly improve the odds of our lives expanding and prospering. To use this powerful force for greater good, make your thinking a conscious attitude of gratitude that is based in awareness and knowledge.

To use this powerful force for greater good, make your thinking a conscious attitude of gratitude that is based in awareness and knowledge.

Prosperous Thanksgiving Blessings,

Nancy

Is it “selfish” to use this energy for ourselves?

Consider these 3 points; then choose for yourself:

  1. In our current culture, “being selfish” has a negative connotation. Yet the word is broader than being egocentric. Consider that each of us is responsible for this body and persona we have as a vehicle in this world. It is our job to take care of ourselves, necessarily our first priority before giving to others. It doesn’t work to put others first anyway, because we can only give to others from our own level of wholeness. From wholeness, we have something of value to contribute.
  2. This magnetic force can’t be used up, diminished, or taken from anyone else. It’s everywhere present and it’s there for us to use! We’re all putting it into play every day already, every time we focus on something. Applying it with conscious choice and awareness can only be good!
  3. Improving our own lives also automatically improves the One Life that we are all a part of–because our lives are a part of It! Every little bit counts—including us!

The Best

The Best

We want “the best” for our children and our loved ones. Often we write or see this phrase written as a closing salutation in letters or emails. We want the best for ourselves, too. Of course we do! We are expansive creatures, meant to be growing and experiencing more!

How do we get the best?

Drop your limited sense of self –Ernest Holmes

Obviously, we need to be willing to receive the best. We need an attitude of really knowing we deserve and should have more. And we need to know it’s safe— that having more really serves us. It’s surprising how many times when working with a client on this subject of greater prosperity we have uncovered an underlying belief that the person will be rejected by family if s/he becomes successful or more prosperous than they. Another unwillingness to receive greater good is a fear about not knowing how to act or handle money and other assets. The most unusual unwillingness regarding being successful that I’ve come across is that of a client not wanting to furnish his parents with any possible evidence that they might have done a good job raising him! We can trip ourselves up in some pretty tricky ways!

Here’s one from my own experience: James Allen, author of the much-loved little book, “As a Man Thinketh,” Your controlling desiresaid that we are made small by our controlling desires and made great by our dominant aspirations. When I first read this, I wondered what Allen meant by “controlling desires.” I have come to think that in today’s language it means a need to control something or someone. It’s like our present psychological concept of resistance: we can be resistant to something—or in this context of getting the best, we can be resistant to something NOT happening–to NOT getting the best. In my personal case, I was resistant to my parents’ telling me to stay small/keep small, to act always as if I deserve nothing. The admonition went further than just being told to be careful to not act inflated or self-important; we were to be totally subservient. Dad used to say often, to all of us, “Who do you think you are? We’re nobody!” Ironically, in my search to honor being a worthy human being, my resistance to being told to be small was, as James Allen pointed out, keeping me small—because that’s what resistance does!

Life doesn’t happen through control; it happens by expansion. Control clutches and closes off; expansion requires us to be open in order to receive more.

So to prepare to receive the best, we must remove “smallness thoughts” by 1) replace limiting beliefs about ourselves and life, and 2) remove resistances and desires to control—because they make us small, unable to receive.

Once we have removed blockages, we can move on to focus on receiving. And again, we run into the business of clearing away thoughts and actions — in order to be the best container to receive the best. Like attracts like.

We grow not by addition, but by subtraction –Meister Eckhart

Subtracting from our thoughts and actions that which is not aligned and supportive of our greater prosperity causes us to become the best and clearest receiver we can be.

We become the best receiver simply by taking one step forward at a time. Take your very best steps forward, one-by-one-by-one. We all do know what the most principled thing to do is in any given moment.  Just do it. One Step at a time. TAKE YOUR BEST STEP FORWARD. We can do it–and together, we can create the best world ever!

Karma

Karma

Our culture’s popular perception of KARMA is that our fate is determined by past deeds–often ‘way past, from a previous lifetime–and that we are living with certain consequences because we are being punished (or rewarded) for choices we made in the past.

There are some inaccuracies here, for Karma is, quite simply, the Law of Cause & Effect. Yes, we reap the effects we cause. It is true that “what goes around comes around” – but we can change what goes around by changing our action; the law will automatically respond to the new cause, shifting its response to that.

KARMA is all about choice. We have the ability to change CAUSE at any time, initiating a changed effect.

The appearance that our wise choices reward us is because they attract our good; the effects of unethical choices can feel like punishment. (We may get something that we want through an unprincipled act that we are happy about short-term, but inharmonious actions will eventually cause us pain and a sense of alienation or limitation.)

We have a lot of catchy sayings about the Law of Karma: Like attracts like — We reap what we sow – Be careful what you ask for; you’ll get it!

Although a matching effect absolutely will begin to manifest from every action, we are not locked into effects of past actions. We can change our actions at any time, and Life will automatically then begin to respond to those actions, setting a new tendency in motion. (Sometimes it does take some time for the shift to be complete—that depends on us and how fast we accommodate the new effects in our lives; we have to create space for the new.)

You have the Power of Choice—always!
USE IT! Use it wisely!

How to respond to the Law of Karma? All the world’s spiritual teachings agree:

  • Act in love.
  • Treat others as you wish to be treated.
  • Live ethically.

And let peace be with you!

Enjoy your Inner Self

STOP AND REALIZE YOUR PRECIOUSNESS!
What did you do on your summer vacation? Did you take one? ”Relaxing and enjoying ourselves” is a phrase we commonly use when describing our vacations. We’re usually talking, when we use it, about feeling good.

Why does relaxing feel so good?

  1. It’s a break from hard work/boring work/mundane existence.
  2. We have the circumstances to simply have fun—to enjoy activities such as swimming and boating, reading a novel in the hammock or taking in a movie or concert with friends.
  3. There’s another reason that I think is even more at play here; it’s this: It is when we are relaxed that we can sense into who we really are, into our Inner Self– with the dreams, strengths and yearnings of our real selves that desire to be recognized and realized.

Truly “enjoying ourselves” is what happens when we recognize and let our inner selves out to play!

flowers
Our #1 need (after physical survival) is having our preciousness realized!
Too often in our current culture, vacation time is the only time when we take the time to be consciously aware of our precious Inner Self. As this luscious August month comes to a close and we shift our attention to the back-to-school-and-work season that follows, consider completing this month’s CSL focus on the power of rest by setting an intention to enjoy your Inner Self more often.

Schedule times of rest for the recognition of your preciousness. No one else’s appreciation of you will get through to you if you aren’t doing it yourself. It’s an inside job! Remember to stop and smell your inner flowers—and enjoy them–all year long.

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