Jun 07, 2015

Pondering’s

 

Living the Life of Abundance

 

When we start to live truly the life of abundance, life changes. Joy and happiness begin to fill our lives, but at the same time we feel restless, that something is missing. Yes, life is becoming joyful and happy, but we can sense that something is lacking to bring the Joy we have to fruition. This feeling is correct, something is missing. What is missing is our response to these promptings, our part in living a Life of Abundance, or a life of Joy and Happiness. We need to take a further step to find the intense level of Joy that is ours for the taking. This further step of the giving of yourself completes the cycle and raises our consciousness to a level of the sublime, where we join with the Oneness that is Who We Are, and the fire of Divine Joy fills our heart and being, and we become Being, knowing we are one with God, the Eternal Wisdom.

 

This is the step that raises us to the sublime. This is the step that takes us from those who say “Lord, Lord” but do nothing, but joins us with the Work of the Spirit. Jesus was very blunt about this: “Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess to them: I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” (Matt. 7:21-23) Harsh words from the Master, but aimed to spur his listeners and us to understand that we must do something with the gifts given us.

 

St. James, stated in his epistle: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? —- Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17). These are very strong words. But a wonderful thing occurs when we start to walk the road of a Life of Abundance. Opportunities open before us to share our Joy and Love with others that we did not see before this time. Perhaps they were there before this and we were blind to them, but often now that our eyes have been opened, these opportunities are presented to us in a new and unique manner that we can now see.

 

One of the wonderful things that occur in this path is that we begin to understand that we are truly one, and that when we help another we are helping a part of ourselves, and when we fail to help another, we cut ourselves off from the Oneness of all, and strangle the budding Joy and Happiness that should be ours.. That is the meaning behind the harsh words of Jesus, and the warning of St. James. We are one, or I should say we are One, with a capital letter. When we try to keep our new-found Joy to ourselves and refuse those opportunities presented to us, we are denying our Oneness, and cutting ourselves off from the Truth of Life: Both the words of Jesus, “Whatever you did to the least of these brothers and sister of mine, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:40) and the studies of Quantum Physics say the same, that we are all One, that nothing separates us in the reality of physicality or spirituality but our ego telling us that it isn’t so. The Franciscan Mystic Richard Rohr put it this way in a post of his Daily Meditation (which I greatly recommend): “Matter and spirit have always been one, since God decided to manifest God’s self in the first act of creation. Modern science (especially quantum physics and biology) is demonstrating that this is, in fact, the case. Where does this endless drive toward life, multiplication, fecundity, creativity, self-perpetuation, and generativity come from, except from Something/Someone we call an indwelling “Spirit”? We are truly One being, one in spirit and one in Being, and one in Physicality, since everything in the Universe is made up of the same quanta material, flowing through and in us at all times.

 

We can attempt to stay separate, and our ego demands of us that we stay separate, but the reality is that we are not separate, both in our physical makeup and our spiritual being. Biology shows us that, on average, every cell in our body is replaced by new and fresh cells every seven years, which means that I have gone through over seven new bodies, every cell replaced, in my lifetime.

 

When we join our fellow humans in the spirit of giving of ourselves and our material and spiritual goods, we find that we have joined the Universe in the care of that Universe. We are not alone, either in spirit or physical being, but our support structure is all tied into one package, both of our small blue world we call home and the 7 billion souls that exist on that world. When we withhold from giving to that world, we withhold giving to ourselves, and cut our mental being off from that world, isolating our self in our ego, cutting our self off from the source of Joy and happiness, wondering why the promise of Joy and Happiness is eluding us. Thus Jesus could say : “I never knew you. Depart from me.” By our actions we are known. When we depart from our source, we find ourselves isolated into our ego and fear, missing the wider world of the Spirit that is ours for the taking. Oh we can never miss the ultimate goal of our life, to rejoin the bliss when this journey is over, but we will have failed to reach the goals we has set for ourselves when we entered the physical world.

 

Everything is One Thing

 

One of the wonders of quantum physics is that in that world of the very small, everything is one thing: a bond of something that we may call energy, but a different energy from what we know as electricity, or similar bonds. The energy of everything includes the Universe as a whole, spreading from the very small to include the vastness of the universe, bonds that reach across the stars that maintain the hundreds of billions of stars in the heavens, the galaxies, the super galaxies, the Universe itself, and the also our star, our planet, the soil under our feet, the hair on our body, our very Life that we live. This energy is alive, moving, shifting, changing at the speed of light, no matter if it be a galaxy, a star, a planet, a rock – or you or I. The Super Hadron Collider is uncovering a peak into this untold energy that fills everything we behold and forms all that we know in our physical world. The Oneness of everything, separated only by minute shifts in the energy bonds between everything, is Life itself. What happens to one thing, no matter where it occurs in the Universe, affects everything in the Universe to some degree, and the closer the energy bonds are then the quicker the effect that occurs, and the stronger the effect.

 

Quantum physics states that everything is moving, no matter what we see in our course ability to see, that everything is alive, that everything is a form of Life, and that all Life is one action, that all life is joined through the bonds of attraction that is the Universe itself.

 

It is this Life Energy that is the Creator of all, the Alpha and the Omega, that Living force that holds all together in a single interrelated one form of Life that we call the Universe and all that is in it. If we are one in Life with the Universe, we are one in Life with everything in our planet, and we are one in Life with plants, animals, — and other human beings. Anything we do effects all others, and when we do something to another, we do it to ourselves, just as Jesus had said 2000 years ago. “What you do for another, you do for me.” (Matt. 25). And if we do it for Jesus in anyone, we do it for ourselves in that same vein, as Jesus, like all humanity, is in you and me, in spirit as well as energy. As Jesus said, we are all One, as we are One with our planet, so the damage we do to the planet we do to ourselves, and that support we give to the planet, we give support to ourselves.

 

Science has determined that all is one, and just as spiritual teachings the world over has said, all is one. The flutter of a butterfly in San Francisco affects the atmosphere in India, and quite truthfully effects the behavior of the furthest star in the universe.

 

Somehow, both science and spirituality has managed to arrive at the same point: All is one, one force, one Life, one Being of which we can sense only a tiny, time-limited, infinitely small portion of that Life we can, and do, call God, the Unmoving Mover, the Source of all, the Alpha and the Omega, the All in All, of which nothing is apart.

 

The Work Before Us

 

We are all One Being. If we desire to live the Life of Abundance, to find Joy and happiness in life, then that life we live had better align itself with the energy of Life in our Universe. To attain a Life of Abundance, we have to give a Life of Abundance. To receive Joy, we have to give Joy. To receive happiness, we have to give happiness.

 

What you give away to others, you give to yourself.

 

It does not matter where you find yourself drawn, you will find the opportunities to give, in small things like giving to the street person with the cup or pail held out, or picking up a piece of rubbish on the street, or giving to organizations that contact us in causes we can believe in, or larger things like starting an organization that will feed the hungry in your community.

 

The more you give of time and monies the more you receive. Yes, it is as simple as that. Sometimes our life only permits us small amounts of time due to family and job situations, but what you do with that time that you have is what counts.

 

Everyone can give something to someone or something to aid our planet. Everyone has, like the poor women who only gave a small coin to the temple, but that being her only coin, meant more than the person who gave from their plenty. Everyone can plant a tree, pick up trash, recycle, create a small beauty that eases a soul passing by. Most of us can give much more than that, not just money but time, time to visit a sick friend or just a lonely person in a hospital or retirement home, or someone housebound, join a hospice care group, visit a retirement home, and so many positive things to do.

 

Another opportunity, especially for a person who has an empty nest, is to join a good cause and work with others to accomplish a great deed. There are great groups looking for volunteers to improve society, feed the hungry, or care for the environment, or to help animals, and so many more so that I cannot keep up with them. I receive about 8 letters a day asking for help; I cannot help all, but I pick and choose those who appeal to me.

 

What you give to others you give to yourself.

 

You want Joy, be Joyful and bring others to Joy.

 

Meditation

 

O Comforter, You bring me Peace and Joy even when things seem unpleasant. I am grateful for Your Presence that fills my being, bringing to light the Fire of Love that seems to overwhelm me at times. I know your Love is present at all times, and is just awaiting my attention for it to becoming centered in my life. I am thankful for the ever expanding sense of Life that I see in the wonder of nature, and the further sense of Life in the laughter of children and friends that you have blessed me with at this time of my life. I thank you for the gift of Love that has surrounded me all of my life, helping me stay close your presence despite what was in my life at the moment.