Spiritual Practices

SELF-TALK IS A KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH –

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PART 1, FOR NEUROTYPICAL THINKERS

“If your friends talked to you the way you talk to yourself sometimes, would you keep them as friends?”
~ Lou Tice

Our inner dialogue, the way we think and feel about ourselves, is a major key to our spiritual, psychological, and physical well-being; it is particularly true in challenging times when we are bombarded with negative input from the world around us. This basic truth is of critical importance to the student of New Thought.

We all need to wrangle the “monkey mind” to lower the volume and, most importantly, change the tone from negativity to affirmation, from self-doubt (even self-hatred) to self-love. Most of our thinking is in patterns we have set down over time, conditioning ourselves into a track which we cannot leave without lots of conscious intention and attention.

This post is for neurotypical thinkers – or those who think in ways we generally call “normal.” Part 2 will address, to the best of my ability, how this applies to neurodivergent thinkers (ADD/ADHD, some Autism Spectrum, Aphantasia, etc.), a too-often overlooked or unecognized group historically in New Thought.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

When we say that thoughts are things, we mean that our thoughts accumulate to build beliefs. Thoughts are three dimensional – words, images, and emotions – and it is the accumulation of patterns of thinking which build subconscious beliefs. These beliefs then act as scripts which we accept as true and influence, even dictate, how we think and feel subsequently in relation to the beliefs. A stray thought does not do this, unless there is tremendous emotion attached to it – you find out a friend has died suddenly, or that you have won the lottery. In such cases, beliefs can be formed by that single three-dimensional thought, which will tend to be automatically reinforced by subsequent thoughts arising out of the belief(s) formed by it.

The beliefs we form in our subconscious can cause physical changes such as healing and even our DNA to be altered by deeply held beliefs. It is important to remember that negative beliefs will affect us negatively and positive beliefs will affect us positively.

“We are all cases of self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever we prophesize, or believe, about ourselves will come true. This is why it is very important to pay attention to our thoughts – to make sure we don’t let them go on and on unattended. Our thoughts are like misbehaved children – we need to pay attention to them. Start listening to your self-talk. Pay attention to what you’re inwardly telling yourself day after day. Then if what you hear isn’t prophesizing the results you want, then you can choose to change what you tell yourself.”
~ Marie T. Russell

Spiritual practices, particularly spiritual mind treatment, are designed to direct your patterns of thought toward what you choose to affirm in life and away from negativity. Treating for 15-30 minutes a day is an excellent basis for transforming your self-talk. But there is also a need to “tend the garden” throughout the day, being attentive to your thoughts and feelings and gently redirecting them toward affirmation as needed.

This is the formula for success in New Thought teachings – create affirming thoughts paired with emotions of expectancy; diligently practice thinking those thoughts daily; shepherd your thinking throughout the day, refocusing toward positive expectancy as needed. Remember the importance of appropriate emotions.

“Natural life span of an emotion—the average time it takes for it to move through the nervous system and body—is only minute and a half. We need thoughts to keep the emotion rolling. We lock into painful emotional states [through] our own endless stream of inner dialogue.”
~ Tara Brach

Brach points out the importance of both reinforcing positive emotions and extinguishing negative emotions – not by forcing your feelings, but by gently and firmly refocusing on the positive. You KNOW what it would feel like if your intentions were realized – practice feeling that emotion whenever you think of an intention.

Emotion is the strength of self-talk. Words, even with images, have little effect unless accompanied by emotions that make them seem real and vivid. A trained mind uses this knowledge regularly, with fewer “idle” thoughts and more intentional ones. When we recognize the power of this kind of thinking, we use it to create the life we desire.

“Thoughts of failure, limitation or poverty are negative and must be counted out of our lives for all time. … God has given us a Power and we must use it. We can do more toward saving the world by proving this law than all that charity has ever given it.”
~  Ernest Holmes

Creative Mind and Success

Visualization (LINK) – the use of three-dimensional thinking – is the essence of spiritual mind treatment, or affirmative prayer. We use prayer-treatment to change our minds, to create and develop positive beliefs which guide us automatically toward being our best selves.

When visualizing it is important to imagine that what you seek is ALREADY MANIFEST – not “I will” or “I can” but “I am” or “I have” language. A prayer-treatment is a series of visualizations using three-dimensional thought to build beliefs. This is then reinforced throughout the day by visualizing your desires as manifest as appropriate.

“I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention and one day I decided I had better things to do.”
~ Brian Andreas 

In Part 2, I will explore a bit about how all of this applies to neurodivergent (LINK) thinkers. As noted above, this is a group who has been underserved or ignored in New Thought as a whole.

Copyright 2025 – Jim Lockard

2025 – IT’S TIME TO AWAKEN AND ENGAGE

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For my final post of 2024, I turn for inspiration to Pema Chödrön, whose works have inspired me for many years.

“Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It’s becoming critical. We don’t need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what’s already here. It’s becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.”
~ Pema Chödrön

When Things Fall Apart

As the new year dawns, many of us find ourselves feeling anxiety about what is to come. This concern or fear extends across many aspects of our lives, from personal issues with health, finances, or relationships outward into local, regional, national, and global concerns relating to the climate crisis, wars, political turmoil, economics, healthcare, racism, sexism, and so on.

A part of me wants to think, “after all the praying and rituals done for peace and wellbeing, how did we get into this mess?” The metaphysical answer to that question is that the collective consciousness of those involved at any level of conditions co-creates experience. Then, I want to ask myself, “is the collective consciousness of humanity so filled with fear that it produced so much suffering despite all the praying?”

And then I realized: the prayers, the Spiritual Mind Treatments (not the same as regular prayer – LINK), the rituals, and the actions were generated in a consciousness of fear, at least to some degree. We are taught to look at the outcome to determine the dominant consciousness, whether of the individual or the group. So many are caught up in a speeding up of thought driven by a combination of our own tendency toward anxiety and the technical revolution of devices and new media which feed that anxiety.

“Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.”
~ Pema Chödrön

When Things Fall Apart

It is important to develop a consciousness of Oneness with the Divine within as a starting point or a foundation for the beliefs in our subconscious. This expands our capacity to see what we fear and simultaneously know that we can deal with it. It gives us the ability to love and to be calm in the face of apparent chaos and danger. And it gives us the ability to hold ourselves and others in compassion, even when they are against us.

Religious fear is loud; spiritual truth is quiet. What the founders of the branches of the New Thought family tree had in common was a realization of the power of mind to transform and heal plus an intention to help people develop spiritual truth in their lives. That process requires high levels of intention, determined and extended spiritual practices, and a growing realization of one’s own inner power.

“When we’re putting up the barriers and the sense of ‘me’ as separate from ‘you’ gets stronger, right there in the midst of difficulty and pain, the whole thing could turn around simply by not erecting barriers; simply by staying open to the difficulty, to the feelings that you’re going through; simply by not talking to ourselves about what’s happening. That is a revolutionary step. Becoming intimate with pain is the key to changing at the core of our being—staying open to everything we experience, letting the sharpness of difficult times pierce us to the heart, letting these times open us, humble us, and make us wiser and more brave. Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.”
~ Pema Chödrön

Practicing Peace in Times of War

Being with the inevitable pains of life until they have taught us what we needed to learn is a hallmark of spiritual evolution. Too often our spiritual practices reflect a desire to have a life free of pain and problems, as if that were even possible. In fact, it isn’t even desirable. Our fear-based ego tries to defend us by amplifying what is frightening while at the same time constricting our access to deeper intuitive wisdom; at least until we train it differently.

We develop the capacity for spiritual realization by embracing all of life, even the painful parts. This does not mean that we enjoy pain or fear, but if these were eliminated from our lives, we would cease developing. Our deeply held and cherished beliefs are often false and will not be charmed out of our consciousness. When we teach that healing can come without discomfort and/or pain we are being inconsistent with both what we know about human psychology and what the founders actually taught. Without challenges, we do not grow. Learning and growth require change, and change is always uncomfortable or worse. However, we have within us the capacities to withstand and transform more than we think we can.

“If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.”
~ Pema Chödron

Practicing Peace in Times of War

Echoing Gandhi’s prescription to be the peace you want to see in the world, here Chödron cautions that it is courage which will soften our hearts and allow us to stay the course. In other words, there must be peace in our own hearts before we can see it in the outer world. The transformation of humanity begins within each individual.

Resist the urge to demonize others. Become strong enough to see through the eyes of compassion, which means the real truth: that Oneness is the nature of things and separation is an illusion. With that strength, refuse to be baited into a lesser version of yourself or to be knocked off balance by the behaviors of others. Remember that all harmful behavior arises from fear.

Stay with love. Stay with power. Stay with Compassion. Practice the principles every day. Engage with life from this basis and you will be a positive influence.

“So, the next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually, we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.”
~ Pema Chödrön

When Things Fall Apart

I wish you a very CONSCIOUS AND FULFILLING NEW YEAR!

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Copyright 2024 – Jim Lockard

REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE IN CHALLENGING TIMES

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NOTE: I haven’t published in a while because we were traveling in the far east and the US in September and early October. I mean to write about those experiences, but this topic has risen to the top of my need to-write list.

“The Love of the All-Good is within me and through me. That Love goes out to meet all who come into my atmosphere. It radiates to all and is flowing through all. My Love within me is Perfect.”
~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

“The soul will not put up with a narrow span of existence. ‘All the years,’ says the soul, ‘are mine; no epoch is closed to great minds; all Time is open for the progress of thought.'”
~ Seneca, Stoic Philosopher

Ernest Holmes tells us that we are ever renewed by the passage of divine energy through us. This energy is life itself, and it is the “fuel” with which we operate at every level of our being – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When we remember this, we can draw upon our strength, wisdom, and potential in every aspect of our lives.

We are facing challenging times, and while all times have their challenges (it is how we grow and develop), these times represent an accumulation of conditions relating to our collective inattention and denial. Various aspects of our collective human shadow are being projected and we must deal with them with great love, wisdom, and empowerment.

The fear generated by these conditions is creating additional chaos, conflict, and violence across the globe and in our own psyches. We are too often entrapped by our fears of growing chaos.

“Any meaningful change must begin with recognizing and letting go of what entraps us. Yet the little self feels it will lose what it holds so dear. Even when life begins to feel like a trap and the pain becomes undeniable, the monkey-minded little self will not simply let go. Often enough it seems better to cling to a familiar pain than suffer a genuine change of state.”
~  Michael Meade, “Fate and Destiny”

Fear is turning many toward an embrace of authoritarianism, which promised to wall our perceived troubles out and keep us safe within if we only obey the increasingly disempowering rules and edicts; if we only close our eyes to “necessary cleansing” of those “undesirables” who are blamed for our fears.

At the same time, there are no perfect candidates, no clear path toward a more loving humanity. However, there are stark differences among those who seek leadership of our nations, our communities, and our spiritual communities. Choosing wisely is not that difficult when we remember who we are. And we remember who we are more clearly when we do our spiritual practices.

“There is a longing that burns at the root of spiritual practice. This is the fire that fuels your journey. The romantic suffering you pretend to have grown out of, that remains coiled like a serpent beneath the veneer of maturity. You have studied the sacred texts. You know that separation from your divine source is an illusion. You subscribe to the philosophy that there is nowhere to go and nothing to attain, because you are already there and you already possess it.

“But what about this yearning? What about the way a poem by Rilke or Rumi breaks open your heart and triggers a sorrow that could consume you if you gave in to it? You’re pretty sure this is not a matter of mere psychology. It has little to do with unresolved issues of childhood abandonment, or codependent tendencies to falsely place the source of your wholeness outside yourself. The longing is your recognition of the deepest truth that God is love and that this is all you want. Every lesser desire melts when it comes near that flame.”
~ Mirabai Starr, “Longing for the Beloved”

Whether it is the coming national elections in the US and elsewhere or watching the transformation of what it means to be in spiritual community in New Thought, we are called to know the Truth every more clearly and to be our best selves as a result. We are called to end our denial about both the conditions of the world and our own capacity to be effective. We are called to stand in our strength and power with compassion and grit. We are called to deny falsehoods lovingly and clearly because we have educated ourselves about the issues. We are called to treat (pray) and move our feet.

None of us are fully “there” yet. We are all works in progress. Begin where you are, do your practices to know your best self and to forget whatever is within you that is unlike that. Practice self-care as necessary. Listen to your body and to your intuition. Repeat every day for as long as needed.

“The spiral of life is upward. Evolution carries us forward, not backward. Eternal and progressive expansion is its law and there are no breaks in its continuity. It seems to me that our evolution is the result of an unfolding consciousness of that which already is and needs but to be realized to become a fact of everyday life.”
~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Copyright 2024 – Jim Lockard

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WHY SPIRITUAL REALIZATION IS HARD

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“A change of consciousness does not come by simply willing or wishing. It is not easy to hold the mental attention to an ideal, while the human experience is discordant, but – it is possible. Knowing the Truth, is not a process of self-hypnosis, but one of a gradual unfoldment of the inner self.”
~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

“Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.”
~ Victor Hugo

There came a moment of clarity for me when I was in my second year of Science of Mind™ classes in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, when I realized that as difficult as I thought it would be to be a truly good Catholic (my religion of birth), it would be even more difficult to be a good Religious Scientist (my religion of choice).

The difficulty of my Catholic faith (to me, immature as I was) had to do with trying to please an external power who was, frankly, impossible to please. It was about conforming to others’ interpretation of dogma, doctrine, and rules with little to no focus on realizing my own power or divinity. I just HAD to be good.

To be a good student of New Thought is to realize that inner divinity and power and to express it in everyday life, regardless of what is happening or of what conditions are present. It is self-realization, which can be described as alignment with one’s deepest self, the soul, through the unconscious to the conscious mind and outward into action. The locus of control shifts from external to internal. To live the Science of Mind or any New Thought teaching is to work toward becoming AND TO BECOME self-realized in a real and practical sense. It is, to paraphrase Carl Jung, the realization of the soul’s agenda (LINK). There is no greater challenge, and it’s hard.

The gap between belief and knowing is critically important to comprehend, as it is the key area of inner action for spiritual realization. We can believe things which are true or false; we can only know what is true. It is in the gap between believing and knowing that our most significant work is done. It is here that we meet the shadow elements which can obstruct our path if we do not claim and integrate them. Shadow work is essential to aligning with the soul’s agenda.

Demonstration is often what leads us from belief into knowing, for we can only know what we have demonstrated. You might say that our treatments/thoughts/affirmations lead to belief and that our faith leads to demonstration and our demonstration leads to knowing. Only in knowing is our work complete with regard to any particular issue or characteristic.

“People who expect to demonstrate this principle must be very constant, very determined, very positive, very sure, and faithful with themselves, patient with themselves, long-suffering with themselves. You will rise and you will fall, you will get discouraged, you will become encouraged, but always you will be progressing.”
~ Ernest Holmes

Love and Law, p 57

How does one describe the difference between belief and knowing? An example would be if one person had been to Seattle and the other had not, the first person would know that Seattle exists and the second person could only believe that Seattle exists. That belief might be very strong and it may be true, but it is not a knowing until one has experienced being in Seattle.

The same can be said for anything else – health, abundance, compassion, creative self-expression, self-love – these can only be at the level of knowing when they have been demonstrated or experienced. This takes diligent, constant, determined, and faithful spiritual practices over whatever time it takes to transform consciousness and create alignment for the intuitive knowing of the soul to move into conscious awareness.

“In order to manifest you must assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. You must be able to feel it in your body long before your senses are aware of it. Your inner pictures and the corresponding feelings that are connected to your vision belong only to you, and you begin to treat this inner world of thoughts and feelings as sacred territory. You make the shift from believing to knowing, and what you absolutely know is not tinged with doubt.”
~ Wayne Dyer

Here, Wayne Dyer, one of my personal way showers into New Thought, describes the process of manifestation. He includes the key in the last sentence, to shift from believing to knowing, which is the essence of spiritual realization. This is perfectly consistent with the quote at the top from Ernest Holmes, which speaks to the idea of a gradual unfoldment of the inner self, meaning to come into alignment with the soul, the essence of our individuated selves.

Knowing requires alignment through our unconscious (or subconscious) mind, which by definition we do not have direct knowledge of. We can only get a sense of the contents of our unconscious by seeing our automatic behaviors, especially habits and attitudes which arise without conscious effort. What we call our consciousness is an aspect of the unconscious mind which our awareness cannot penetrate. We can only know that we have made a change in our consciousness by observing our automatic behaviors and attitudes and seeing that they are different than they were.

“The dominant attitude of consciousness is only ‘right’ when it accords with the claims of both consciousness and the unconscious. Only then can it combine their opposing tendencies into unity. If, on the other hand, the ruling attitude is either too weak or incomplete, the ‘life is consumed by unfruitful conflict.’ But if the old attitude of consciousness is renewed through its descent into the unconscious, then from the latter there emerges a new symbol of wholeness which is as son to the old king.”
~ Emma Jung & Marie-Louise von Franz,
The Grail Legend

When there is a change in consciousness at the unconscious level, it automatically emerges as new attitudes and behaviors in our lives. This is the new current reality after the initial demonstration. The demonstration is, in effect, a step in developing knowing. Once knowing is established, then new consciousness is automatically expressed in our lives. This is the importance of going beyond believing to knowing; of going beyond the need for conscious control of behaviors and thoughts to the realization of a new idea which is embodied in the unconscious mind. The old habit is extinguished, the new habit is born. This is all happening through processes in our brain/mind that we have no direct experience of, both quantum and biological in nature.

Once we have arrived at knowing, we can be at peace, confident that we will express in a manner consistent with our newly accepted consciousness, a consciousness based upon our demonstrations and experiences.

“I am still, knowing that God is over all, in all, and through all. I am at ease. I am at peace.”
~ Ernest Holmes

In a future post, I will explore how to make the process of manifesting at the level of knowing more accessible, and how the ways that we often teach New Thought principles and practices can inhibit this transformational process.

As always, your comments are welcome. Please share this post with others who may be interested. If you are so inclined, you can register to receive an email when a new post is up on this blog.

Copyright 2024 – Jim Lockard

MEDITATION IS NOT ABOUT QUIETING THE MIND

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’Tame your mind, Control your mind’ is an empty societal construct

Mind cannot be tamed, it can be aligned

Taming your mind, forcing it, is a chase and a non-permanent endeavour

Mind retaliates strongly

It is far more effective to ‘Observe’ your mind

No one talks about this

~ @PhilosophyVK

How many of us have stopped trying to meditate because the thoughts would not stop?

Sitting quietly for a period of time and observing your thoughts and feelings arising and regressing without attempting to control them is what meditation is. Trying to tame or quiet the mind, or more foolishly, trying to eliminate your ego, is what meditation is not.

You might focus on your breathing, or recite a mantra silently or out loud, or observe a candle flame or some other object as a centering point, but that is simply a technique to remind you to observe your thoughts and feelings, not to get lost in or direct them.

“Meditation is akin to trauma therapy in many ways: in both practices one must remain engaged and alert for long periods of time, tolerate violent emotions without tuning out, and carry upwelling contents with empathy but without becoming over-identified with them.”

~ Ursula Wirtz

I like to think of meditation as the listening half of my ongoing conversation with my soul. When I am directing my thoughts, as in spiritual mind treatment or setting intentions, I am in the speaking part of the conversation. Both parts are needed so that we do not become unbalanced in our relationship with our soul – the portal to our divinity.

“A spiritual practice is a thing you do again and again, with a certain intention, and it changes you. It could be prayer or meditation or running or making art or writing morning pages, etc.. But it can hold you steady and fill you up when you’re giving out so much to others.”

~ Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

The occasional meditation may be salutary, but it cannot build toward something lasting. The practice must be regular, daily or multiple times a day, to build the relationship with the soul – the authentic self.

I have nothing more to say.

Copyright 2021 – Jim Lockard

CASTING A VISION FOR AN EMERGING FUTURE

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“What looks like the end of the world today is often divine intelligence prodding us to incubate (to cocoon) to change ourselves from the inside out and emerge the butterfly. Don’t fight it.”

~ Nathalie Wynn Pace

We find ourselves in a unique time and situation here on planet earth. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we, well most of us, are in some form of isolation or quarantine, most of the global economy is on hold, most work is not being performed or being performed differently, and we face a future of great uncertainty. As we find our way in this current moment, learn to change our routines and our priorities, we come to a point where it is time to think about our future. It is time to cast a vision to pull us forward into what is next, even as we deal with the ongoing situations of the present.

In New Thought, we learn the power of intention can be internalized and accepted on the subconscious level. We also have adopted other technologies such as Visioning (LINK) (LINK to Theory U), which help us to access the deepest aspects of our intuitive knowing in our unconscious mind. The key is to practice these and other techniques (meditation, contemplation, selfless service) on a daily basis to train our minds to be continually accepting of our highest good. And we stay focused in the Absolute realm in mind when we do our practices, ignoring any relative conditions which may be present and focusing only on feeling that the desired effect is already manifest.

Of course, as we do our practices, we open to deeper levels of acceptance and invitation, encouraging our evolution. When we are haphazard in our practices, we find ourselves treading water in the shallows of the ego – in ordinary consciousness.

Ordinary consciousness holds us in what we know, what we have come to expect, and in the accepted consciousness of our surroundings; what Ernest Holmes called “race mind.” If we are fearful about our acceptance by others or of straying too far from established norms, our imagination will be limited to what we already know, plus some small additions, rather that being available to radical transformation. Deeper consciousness, established through long and proper practice, opens us through a process of inner emergence to what is radically new and to possibilities beyond our previous imaginings. Remember, there is an intuitive visionary within you – it may just be covered by years of conditioning.

“Perhaps, some day, humanity can start afresh, a new world, a tabula rasa, a world with a mind without prior experiences. No memories and no pain. A day when the ones with abundance do not look down at the poor and the needy, a day when we learn to care for the victims, the fallen souls of civilization and advancement, a day when the world will be pure. When all of humanity becomes a clean sheet of parchment, without knowledge and prejudice, simple, hungry for knowing, tasting, and feeling; hungry for life and ready to absorb the ink of experience.”

~ Henry Martin, Escaping Barcelona

scientists_happy-when-this-is800

Occasionally, living conditions for humans become so radically different that potentials open which would have seemed impossible before. We are in such a time. The wave of the pandemic may be seen as preparing us for the much larger wave of climate change which is already rising as a much larger threat to humanity and other life forms. If we simply choose to return to a previous normal after the pandemic, we will show that we have not learned its potential lessons and we will likely be swallowed by the larger wave. This moment contains within it the possibility to reset and to invite an evolutionary jump in our consciousness. We either maximize that evolutionary opportunity or we will not be ready for what is coming next for us.

“An evolving system cannot return to the past.”

~ Barbara Marx Hubbard

Cartoon - Evolution - More Steps

Our evolutionary impulse is being called forth by increasingly complex and challenging living conditions, and we are each called to listen deeply and open to personal and collective transformation. Who we have been is inadequate to the emerging future. Intention is powerful but it must be reinforced to build belief and then to transcend belief and become knowing. There is no substitute for daily practice to develop our mystical and psychological faculties to work together for our greatest benefit, both as individuals and as part of any community.

“In order to manifest you must assume the feeling of the (intention) fulfilled. You must be able to feel it in your body long before your senses are aware of it. Your inner pictures and the corresponding feelings that are connected to your vision belong only to you, and you begin to treat this inner world of thoughts and feelings as sacred territory. You make the shift from believing to knowing, and what you absolutely know is not tinged with doubt.”

~ Wayne Dyer

In terms of personal growth, my lodestone is the direction to which my authentic feelings point. I say my authentic feelings, because it took many years of practice to discern those feelings connected to my intuition from those connected to my fear-based ego. But when I attune to those authentic feelings, I have a North Star to follow. In setting my intentions, I may not know what form their manifestation will take, but I always know how I want them to FEEL. That feeling becomes my guide and the expression to which I compare any forms which appear to see if there is a right fit.

Each of us has latent genius within. We are evolutionary beings designed to emerge, layer by layer, in response to an increasingly complex environment. The tools for managing and supporting our evolutionary growth are our spiritual practices. Your inner genius and mine will only be fully and usefully revealed when combined with powerful intentions supported by serious practices. If we are to flourish ourselves and contribute to the flourishing of others, we must be all in. We must, as the great Patanjali put it: “seek enlightenment as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.”

“What does matter, as Kierkegaard so rudely reminded us, is that only by investing and speaking your vision with passion, can the truth, one way or another, finally penetrate the reluctance of the world. If you are right, or if you are wrong, it is only your passion that will force either to be discovered. It is your duty to promote that discovery—either way—and therefore it is your duty to speak your truth with whatever passion and courage you can find in your heart. You must shout, in whatever way you can.”

~ Ken Wilber, One Taste

We share the passion of our emergence by connecting with others, by finding like-souls who are committed to bringing us to something better together. We speak up and speak out according to our individual natures, but we determinedly contribute to a better world, regardless of our temperament. As we evolve, we become focused on our good and release any concerns about the judgement of others. We leave the opinions of the world and become our own authority – but an authority with rigorous standards based on deep inner work.

We contemplate our intentions, play with them, expand them, deepen them. We allow our deepest intuitive wisdom to be free of our ego’s need to limit our access to the unknown within us through rigorous and regular practice. We vision and envision, we seek and explore, we love and connect. The mystic within us sees through sacred eyes, as we do our spiritual practices to remove the scales of limitation, fear, and cynicism. We emerge as a new level of evolutionary being, one suited to confront greater challenges, and to respond with strength, wisdom, and compassion.

“If we look with cynical eyes we see a truncated vision, bereft of hope. . . .It is with sacred eyes that we can see the larger, more realistic, picture. Sacred eyes can penetrate through the opaqueness of materialism and reductionism, and can sort through the chaos of our current time to see the emerging values of the 21st century.”

~ Robert Keck, Sacred Eyes

Oh yes, and JOY. As Joseph Campbell pointed out, “We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can learn to live joyfully in the sorrows of the world.” This means that we can strive to know our own divine nature regardless of outer circumstances; that we can best serve when we know the bliss of this divine nature; and that in experiencing this joy, we are simply knowing who we really are. Then, we are ready to show up and co-create a world that works for everyone.

Navigating a culture

towards conscious impulsion

with unshakeable vision

while at the same time

honoring its sacred heritage

is not for the faint of heart.

~ Unknown

As always, your comments are encouraged and welcomed. As you do your practices, what visions arise – personal or collective – for the time after the virus? What are your thoughts about the possibilities for new ways of being happening in our societies? What are your visions for New Thought in the world? Your intentions for the next chapters of your own life?

 

Copyright 2020 – Jim Lockard

FINDING OUR WAY THROUGH THE CHAOS

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The past two months have taken me to the U.S. and Mexico before coming back to France. Dorianne and I vacationed in Puerto Vallarta, stayed with friends and visited family in Southern California, and attended to some elder care issues for family members. I traveled to Washington DC to visit my daughter and Maryland to visit my aunt and uncle, now in their 90’s. I did a men’s retreat at CSL Simi Valley (LINK) and spoke at the Global Truth Center LA (LINK); later I spend a weekend with the leadership team at CSL Salt Lake City (LINK) and spoke at their Sunday service. While I was doing that, Dorianne was teaching courses in Mindful Leadership and more to students in Health Care Management in San Diego and Houston.

It was an exhilarating and exhausting trip, book-ended by long travel days, but all of it was our choice, which made it a bit more exhilarating and a bit less exhausting. Of course, during this time, climate change continued on its inexorable pace, the impeachment of the US President moved to the Senate for a “trial,” the Coronavirus (LINK) became news, and the usual litany of humanity’s agonies was discussed on regular and social media. What a time to be alive!

It is a great time to be alive, first because we are alive, and that is pretty great; but also, we get to live at a time which is calling forth great strides in human development. While this is often painful, chaotic, confusing, frustrating, and challenging, it is also filled with the opportunity to actualize potential at levels never seen in human history. Nothing short of this kind of growth in consciousness will take us to a sustainable future.

“Most people with an ear to the ground understand to some extent that the collective behavior of our species is unsustainable. Where they differ in opinion is on what should be done to address this problem. Where they unify in opinion is on the assumption that the solution will look like their own personal ideology winning out over all the others. Capitalists believe that capitalism will provide technological solutions to the problems that capitalism has created, and that this will happen more quickly and efficiently if the fetters on capitalism are removed. Socialists believe that socialism will solve the problems that socialism has been powerless to provide this entire time, if only this consistent pattern of socialism’s inability to obtain dominance is magically deviated from somehow. And so on.”

~ Caitlin Johnstone (LINK)

The heavy traffic on the interchange between the Interstate 10 and 110 freeways near downtown Los Angeles, California during rush hour.

Driving around Los Angeles, I was struck by the magnitude of the challenge to shift away from fossil fuels in this car-dominated megaplex. What combination of technological advances and cultural willingness to change is required to shift to a more sustainable existence here? Where will the resources come from? Who will lead in influencing so many diverse people to make such a shift?

Our stuckness in our own ideologies is an enemy of collective progress. We are called to rise beyond political, religious, and philosophical differences and to contribute to a new collective wisdom. Being humbly unattached to our certainties and willing to explore different and new ideas is now an essential reality. As Alvin Toffler wrote in the last century, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Our answers lie not in our past, nor in what we know presently, but in our ability to merge our current wisdom with new thinking while releasing what no longer works.

“. . . if there is to be any deviation from our species’ self-destructive trajectory, the cause of that deviation will come completely out of left field. No one will expect it, because it won’t come from a direction that we have been conditioned through our experience to look. Our unpatterning will necessarily come from a completely un-patterned direction. A collective movement in an unprecedented direction will necessarily have an unprecedented antecedent.”

~ Caitlin Johnstone

 “The problem isn’t whether or not, as I find myself being asked lately ‘we have a future’, but that we do, absolutely, have a future.”

~ William Gibson

Given that we are faced with a future which arises out of our present, there are questions I must face. Am I in a place where I can shift deeply held aspects of my beliefs and behaviors quickly enough to embrace something radically new? If not, is it something I can be working toward – the ability and a greater willingness to shift? How many of my comforts am I willing to do without?

“An epochal shift is taking place in the contemporary psyche, a reconciliation between the two great polarities, a union of opposites: a sacred marriage between the long-dominant but now alienated masculine and the long-suppressed but now ascending feminine.”

~ Richard Tarnas

Photo Credit: Evan Benz

At the men’s retreat on the healthy masculine (LINKS to past blog posts on this topic), we talked about such issues – coming to terms with our conditioning to abandon our feminine side and how to re-connect in a healthy way. We were confronted with the significant challenge to heal what we often did not realize was wounded, as we are so conditioned in society’s view of what it means to be a man. Women, along with men and everyone on the spectrum of gender have their own work to do in this regard, because only healthy masculine and feminine aspects (not genders – all genders contain masculine and feminine) can allow us the creativity to move forward.

Only through deeper spiritual and psychological exploration and practices will we be able to tap into the reservoir of genius within ourselves. This is what we are called to do by the world as it is today – to deepen our practices and be the drivers of the next leap of evolution as humanity. The alternative is to be driven by conditions produced by a collective consciousness of fear and ignorance.

“Our blind spot, from a person or people point of view, keeps us from seeing that we do indeed have greatly enhanced direct access to the deeper sources of creativity and commitment, both as individuals and as communities. It is one of our most hopeful sources of confidence because we can access a deeper presence, power, and purpose from within. From a structural point of view, the societal blind spot deals with the lack of these cross-sector action groups that intentionally operate from a future that wants to emerge. Instead, we see only special interest groups and three types of fundamentalism, each trying to solve our current mess in a single-minded way.” 

~ C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U (LINK)

Going beyond our settled notions of what works and what doesn’t is essential. Only by breaking through to new developmental levels and to new ways of seeing at every level will we move forward with a minimum of suffering and loss. Yes, it is that serious; the effects of our past ignorance and greed are rising up as the planet’s immune system seeks to rid itself of the disease called fear-based humanity. We are the disease, not in our highest potential, but in our collective actions up until now.

“So what you can do on a personal level is let go of your attachment to the known. Sell off all stocks you’ve invested in your conditioned mental patterning and begin doing the hard inner work necessary to embrace the unknown and unknowable. Begin surprising yourself, and opening doors to allow life to surprise you. Take chances on new and unpredictable situations instead of taking refuge in the known and the familiar. Give less and less interest and attention to your conditioned, looping mental narratives and more and more to the uncontrollable present moment in which literally anything can be born.”

~ Caitlin Johnstone

I do not see my inner work as hard in itself; inner work is a joy. What is hard is peeling back the layers of the onion of my fears, limitations, entrenched beliefs, and biases. So I engage in my inner work, my daily practices, not a labor but as exploration in a field of love. My fears, limitations, entrenched beliefs, and biases are not held against me. They simply disappear when I replace them with a higher order of thinking and being. Our work together is serious and has huge consequences; it is too important to be left to chance. However, we must approach our individual work lightly, lovingly, with self-compassion and higher expectations. I know of no better way forward.

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days… Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me…So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…”

~ Aldous Huxley, Island

 

Copyright 2020 – Jim Lockard

I will be at the Centers for Spiritual Living Convention in Denver in February (CSL.org); also, I will be speaking at the Foothills Center for Spiritual Living Evergreen (LINK) on Sunday, February 16th and conducting a special interview with CSL Spiritual Leader, Dr. Kenn Gordon later that day at the Grand Hyatt Denver LINK to info – join us if you can!

Archives Denver Event

IN THESE TIMES, DOUBLE-DOWN ON YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

/ JimLockard / 3 Comments

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”

~ Zen Saying

We westerners have two significant challenges today – one is that we are too busy. There are a million things to do! The other is that we and our societies are going through seismic shifts, from what we were to what we are to be next, and this transitional period is very turbulent, chaotic, and disruptive.

While our attention and intention are needed to help us to move through these times successfully and to contribute to the greater good, many of us are too busy to do that effectively. Our calendars are full, we have lots of possessions to buy and maintain, then to get rid of, and there are many social and work demands on us all the time.

“Being too busy has this result: that an individual very, very rarely is permitted to form a heart; on the other hand, the thinker, the poet, or the religious personality who actually has formed his heart, will never be popular, not because he is difficult, but because it demands quiet and prolonged working with oneself and intimate knowledge of oneself as well as a certain isolation.”

~ Søren Kierkegaard 

Meditation Ocean

And there is more happening – we are being driven from WITHIN as well. Evolution is the action of the soul’s longing to move forward with the expression of life. The reality of this inner evolutionary response to the changing outer environment is a dance as the inner and outer seek to merge. The turbulence of the world is both being generated by the human need to evolve and being distorted by the presence of so few who are READY to evolve. The heart described by Kierkegaard is the wisdom and love of the intuitive self coming to the fore and being available to us as a default aspect of ourselves. Those who depend on a static world where traditional practices or intellectual analysis will solve our problems are being left behind.

The increasingly rapid rate of change which is unfolding now is human-driven (what else is speeding up? – not the rest of Nature) and seems to have the largely unconscious purpose of increasing the speed of our development toward greater capacities for complexity and healing. Learning to match our heartbeats to this faster and more complex pace is our current calling, perhaps leading to new evolutionary breakthroughs. Our spiritual practices can equip us to master this transformation and to thrive as we move through the turbulence, even as others resist it and push back against forces which are ultimately irresistible.

“It’s a recognition that reality as we know it is being animated by an evolutionary current. This is true on the cosmological large-scale structure of the universe. It’s true biologically. But it’s true on a human level, too. The great mystery is living and wanting to transcend itself through us toward greater expressions of beauty, truth and goodness. And so evolutionary spirituality says that, for lack of a better word, God is implicate, intrinsic to that evolutionary push.”

~ Rev. Bruce Sanguin

Evolution is the mechanism for all forward movement in this universe. Nothing in the universe is untouched by it. Amazingly, human beings are now in a time when we are capable of directing evolution consciously. 14 billion years of the evolutionary process being unconscious and now a new era dawns – and we must prepare ourselves to take dominion of our minds. It is time to double-down on our spiritual practices and on our positivity. As some great minds have written about evolution:

“It seems that this higher order is entropy. Evolution is entropy. It requires disorder in order to jump to a higher order.” ~ Barbara Marx Hubbard

“We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection to conscious evolution by choice.”  ~ Barbara Marx Hubbard

 “Evolution is in part a self-transcending process.” ~ Ken Wilber

 “Is evolution a theory, a system or a hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man

 “We may be sure that the whole aim of evolution is to produce innumerable selves which are all consciously centered in the Universal Self.” ~ Ernest Holmes

 The cure for being “too busy” is to learn to set priorities and focus – with intention and attention – on the important priorities while minimizing distractions. If your priorities are what you are passionate about, this will be fairly easy. If not, you may have set the wrong priorities. We should be passionate about our priorities.

Awakening to and encouraging our evolutionary nature is to come into alignment with our true nature. We are evolutionary beings, designed to develop and unfold from within in response to outer and inner stimuli – we evolve to adapt to our environment, which we also have a hand in designing. This is a critical thing to understand for all of us today.

ELP Butterfly

By doubling-down on spiritual practices you bring yourself toward a greater expression of life, toward being who you came into this incarnation to be. Doubling down is a gambling term for what you do when things have begun to go your way – you increase your wager, your commitment. Doing that with spiritual practices means increasing both the breath and depth of your practice. You may not double the time you meditate, but you do increase it; and you find ways to go deeper into your meditation. You may not double your prayer-treatments, but you increase them and you go deeper into the feeling tone of love and connection with the Divine. By doing these things with all of your spiritual practices, you integrate your higher self and transform your life.

Spiritual practices, done with purpose, passion, and discipline, are transformational. We all profess to know this, but not all of us have experienced it to the degree possible – but we all can! Sit and do your practices without fail, without distraction, staying positive and using positive emotions to set your intentions deeply into your subconscious mind. Find your evolutionary core and bring it forward and you will never be “too busy” or too fatigued by change again. You will be a master of time and space.

“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.”

~ Lao Tzu

Copyright 2019 – Jim Lockard

Announcing:

THE BELOVED COMMUNITY
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IN CHANGING TIMES
With Rev. Dr. Jim Lockard
A Summer Webinar on Zoom
Dates: 6 Fridays – June 14,21; July 12,19,26; Aug 2

For additional info or to register – email me at DrJim-Lockard@ATT.net

Leadership Class - Summer 2019

PATIENCE AND DISCERNMENT – TWO THRIVING SKILLS FOR TODAY

/ JimLockard / 7 Comments

“All (people) are liars, certainly. I just let them sit in that chair and lie till they get tired of lying. Then they begin to tell the truth.”

~ C.G. Jung 

Sign - Self Knowledge

We are easily misled. There are a number of reasons for this. We have internal biases which color our perception and make the world seem to agree with what we believe. We receive information which is incomplete or filtered by others with unconscious biases; this is particularly true of fast-moving news stories. Sometimes, we are deliberately misinformed, or given untruthful information by others who have been misinformed but do not know it.

This week there have been a few examples of people being misinformed or under-informed on mass scales. A group of teens in Washington, DC for a pro-life demonstration encounter a Native American activist and the first images posted convey something which, it turns out, is incomplete, if not totally inaccurate. Outrage spreads on social media and in other media. Many are triggered by this incident, me included, and fail to check our biases before passing the information along – me included.

 

The action of these biases on our perception is linked to the prejudices we hold. While there is clearly racism in the events pictured, none of us is looking at them through an unbiased lens. Racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of bigotry arise because we are easily misled, not only when young, as in the case of some of these teens, but when we are mature as well. If we do not develop qualities which remove our biases, we are well advised to mediate them. This requires a combination of patience and discernment.

Patience may allow us to wait for more information before interpreting and sharing something controversial or inflammatory. Discernment (LINK) may help us to better understand something from the position that we may not understand it fully to begin with – AND that we probably have some unconscious biases which are likely to take us further from the truth.

I believe that we are all complicit in allowing this kind of consciousness to be in power. The changes required are deep and challenging. There is a complex array of elements of human nature, both individual and collective, which affects both how we interact from our worldviews and how those worldviews develop. Each of us brings a unique perspective and set of biases, even if we may seem to be in two camps – left and right for example. When we fail to do our own inner work of seeking out and healing our own biases, we will surely contribute to the expression of those biases in the larger world, unconsciously if not intentionally.

We have failed the generation of young people who have been raised to see violence, hatred, bigotry, and power as part of a pathway to success in our culture. We have failed to teach compassion as a goal, kindness and honesty as acceptable behaviors (even in business!!), and discernment as a desirable skill. By example, we have shown them that ruthless, uncaring, and angry people who are wealthy or “successful” are role models – that might makes right, at least in some cases. And we show our own arrogance if we are angry at these children – they are after all our own creation.

“We are clearly at a long overdue moment in history where everyone, good hearted or not, will HAVE to look at themselves, the part they played in the past, the things they’ve seen, ignored, accepted as normal, or simply missed—and consider what side of history they want to be on in the future.”

~ Anthony Bourdain

Beautiful Moon 7

Compassionate, loving people are not weak, they are empowered. They do not abuse others and they refuse to be abused themselves. They stand up to corruption, dishonesty, and bigotry not from hatred, but from love. It takes years and lots of effort for most of us to mature to this level. Yet, there is no other way forward. Anything less guarantees that we keep producing new generations of fearful, weak, prejudiced people who do more harm than good in the world.

‎”Having compassion does not mean indiscriminately accepting or going along with others’ actions regardless of the consequences to ourselves or the world. It is about being able to say no where we need to without putting the other out of our hearts, without making the other less of a fellow human being. There is a difference between discerning and sometimes even opposing harmful behavior & making the other wrong – less than we are, less a part of that presence that is greater than ourselves – in our own minds & hearts.”

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer

These children are my children. I cannot see them as “other” and hold them in compassion. I cannot condemn them, their parents, or their teachers without condemning myself. This is the lesson of unity and oneness upon which my spiritual teaching is built.

We must commit to our own healing so that we can each be a healing presence in our world and can remain centered in Truth even when the turbulent winds of conflict and crisis are blowing. It is through patience and discernment, thriving skills which are developed through daily spiritual practices, that we grow into our potential.

“Much of our inability to forgive others comes from a deep-seated inferiority complex. Often our antagonistic attitude toward others rises from a need within our own minds to be relieved of our unconscious sense of self-condemnation, as though we have such a burden of guilt within our minds that we can hardly bear it. And so, we project it to others just for the relief it gives ourselves.”

~ Ernest Holmes,

“Living the Science of Mind,” Chapter: “The Need for Forgiveness”

#Aworldthatworksforeveryone #TheBelovedCommunity

Copyright 2019 – Jim Lockard

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THOUGHTS FOR A NEW YEAR – SEEKING WHOLENESS

/ JimLockard / 3 Comments

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.” 

~ William James

Dali-2 - Egg

“This is the moment when we either turn up the light within ourselves or move further into the darkness. Stop giving energy, time, and power to negativity. Counteract it with goodness. Notice where there is a need, then do whatever you can to help.”

~ Oprah Winfrey

Whether you call it wholeness, authenticity, or oneness, what we seek is the deep and profound connection with our souls. This is the essence of spirituality – the bringing forth of the best of ourselves, our Divine Natures.

Entering a new year is a wonderful opportunity to make the kinds of changes in your life which will lead to a deeper level of beingness. You can, of course, do this any time, but the symbolic opportunity of a new year is particularly apt. The theme is seeking – what we seek and what seeks us. Spiritual wisdom teaches us that this is an inside-out process; change begins within and seeks expression and the changed person now notices different things in the outer world. It is like putting on glasses which enable you to see more clearly. The external world has not changed, but one’s ability to perceive it more clearly changes how one relates.

The work of changing our perception is done by using our conscious mind to change belief patterns in our subconscious mind. The best way to do this is through regular, daily spiritual practices, the repetition of which generates new beliefs by altering the information stored in the brain. New neural pathways are opened over time, and our perception becomes clearer. As William Blake wrote: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear . . . as it is, infinite.” Our spiritual practices and the guiding of our daily thoughts to be more loving and wise help us to cleanse those doors of perception.

“Carl Jung saw that the human psyche strives always toward wholeness, strives to become more conscious. The unconscious mind seeks to move its contents up to the level of consciousness, where they can be actualized and assimilated into more complete conscious personality.”

~ Robert A. Johnson

Poster - authentic-self-soul-made-visible2

What is unconscious is not available to us directly, but is active in our creative process, which is a blend of conscious and unconscious elements – thoughts, beliefs, emotions, etc. By working to bring more to the conscious level, we gain greater dominion over our experience. The process of bringing the unconscious to conscious awareness can be difficult and painful – much of what is unconscious is repressed aspects of ourselves, called shadow, which we deemed unacceptable at some point in our lives. When we do not do this work, we remain at the mercy of our repressed selves, which seek healing by bringing us into challenges calling for healthy expression of those repressed aspects. This cycle of projection and denial continues until we interrupt it and re-integrate those aspects consciously.

The seeking we must do is beyond the superficial, beyond just positive thinking, meditating, and contemplating. While all of those are essential, they are not sufficient to do the deep work of healing shadow. I do not believe that this deep work can be done alone, the ego is so resistant to revealing what has been repressed. We need to work with someone who has done their own deep work, a therapist perhaps, who will lovingly hold our feet to the fires of radical self-honesty. Anything less is insufficient.

This is a hero’s journey in itself, requiring a departure from the apparent safety of our denial (which is a false sense of security), and into the depths of our being. It requires that we acknowledge, own, love, and finally, integrate what we have repressed into a healthy self-concept.

heros-journey-project-details-1-638

“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know. The hero journey is a symbol that binds, in the original sense of the word, two distant ideas, the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity, always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find.” 

~ Phil Cousineau

The good news is that we are supported in this work by our soul – the deepest and truest part of who we are. The soul seeks to experience the fullness of life and refuses to sit quietly by as we ignore its urgings. It does not care about propriety or the opinions and rules of others – it wants what it wants. It wants love and expression – it wants to experience the infinite.

“Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being. Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.”

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

To the degree that you choose to do deep work in 2019, you will need to accept that such work is not easy and that it will affect every area of your life. Beginning with an appraisal of your regular spiritual practices – are they sufficient, are they deep enough, are they delivering what you want from them?

If you want to do such an assessment, I am providing access to a document I use with my private students: Click to download Self Assessment Authentic Self Handout 2018. You can download it and complete it, then use it to guide you toward developing a more meaningful and relevant set of spiritual practices.

“Job Description for Spiritual Seeker: Full time position available for person who strives to be mindful and aware of the deeper context of life. Must be intellectually curious, open-minded, and willing to change. Reverence for creation, personal humility, and a strong commitment to social justice will be necessary. Study, prayer, dialogue and meditative practice are expectations. Cross cultural experience important. Compassion and kindness are requirements. Starting date: now. Salary: zero. Benefits: unlimited. Apply in person to the Maker of Everything.”

~ Bishop Steven Charleston

End of Year

As always, your comments are appreciated.

And many thanks to the nearly 12,000 visitors to this blog during 2018. I am very grateful that you found value here.

Copyright 2019 – Jim Lockard