Comforting Peace

It seems to me there are an unusually high number of people in transition right now.   I have noticed in posts to Facebook by my friends, or friends of friends, of loved ones in the process of moving on in life’s adventure.  Of course, the news is full of the almost daily deaths due to gun violence, much of it hitting closer to home than we ever imagined it would.

This challenges us in many ways.  We all know that the time will come for each of us.  Some of us are prepared to “be there” for our loved ones as they move closer to the time of parting from us physically.  Somehow we have found the love and strength to abide in the “peace that passes understanding.”  Still, it is never really easy to voice our final farewell.

When a tragedy of some sort comes unexpectedly, we are seldom ready.  At times such as that instinct often takes over and we are numbed to the tasks at hand that we must attend to.  We are enabled to move through the experience deciding, acting, and comforting others as necessary.  When the immediacy of the need passes, we may fall into our own quiet oblivion while we find our personal healing and renewal.  Perhaps these words from a man who was my mentor and my friend will encourage and strengthen you in your time of need as it has me many times.

I Am There

By James Dillet Freeman

Poet Laureate Of Unity

Do you need me?

I am there.

You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.

You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.

You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.

I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.

I am, at work, though you do not recognize my works.

I am not strange visions.  I am not mysteries.

Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then, but as a feeling and a faith.

Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.

When you need Me, I am there.

Even if you deny Me, I am there.

Even when you feel most alone, I am there.

Even in your fears, I am there.

Even in your pain, I am there.

I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.

I am in you, and you are in Me.

Only in you mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine.”

Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.

Empty your heart of empty fears.

When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.

You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.

And I am in all.

Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.

I am there because I have to be, because I am.

Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.

I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.

I am the love that is the law’s fulfilling.

I am assurance.

I am peace.

I am oneness.

I am the law that you can live by.

I am the love that you can cling to.

I am your assurance.

I am your peace.

I am one with you.

I am.

Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.

Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you because I love you.

Beloved, I am there.

(A copy of “I Am There” is now on the moon . . .carried

there on the Apollo XV voyage by Astronaut James B. Irvin,

and left on the moon for future space voyagers)

Master Djwhal Khul Revisited

Last October I had my first connection with Master DK as I attended the Matter of Mind workshop in Denver. Colorado. I wrote about that experience on this blog. During the weekend of September 25-27, 2009 I attended the Eighth Annual Peace Convocation in Carbondale, Colorado. The focus of the Convocation was on creating balance in our lives. It was not difficult to feel harmony in mind and body as we met near the base of Mt. Sopris, considered a mystical mountain by native Americans. It is one of the most impressive mountains in the state. Its mile of vertical exposure creates an impressive backdrop for the town of Carbondale. In this article I will highlight some of the lessons made available to participants with which I particularly identified.

During the opening evening program, Master invited us to write down five statements representing our obsession with being out of balance, what beliefs we were holding that interfered with establishing a balanced life. After identifying those thoughts, we were invited to write down on a separate piece of paper the same statements in a positive form. For example, suppose I wrote: Why do I not do the things necessary to bring balance to my life? The positive statement might be: I do whatever I need to do to bring balance into my life. Then we were asked to take the positive list crumple it up into a ball as though we were going to throw it away. Instead, however, we were to toss the ball of paper around the room. After awhile we stopped and each person read the paper they were in possession of at the end of the exercise.

What an amazing surprise! When I began to read the positive statements on the paper I ended up with, I discovered statements that actually reflected ways to address my own limited beliefs that I had originally written down. This exercise demonstrated several things to me. First, it was very helpful to see the positive statements that could help me reshape my belief system so as to restore harmony in the certain areas of my life that I had identified. Second, I was able to realize again how very similar the needs of most of us are. Few of us have just one problem. Usually, we have a number of things going on that we feel need to be changed, and those things are quite similar for each of us.

With that in mind, it became clear to me that together we are a powerful force for change. As we individually bring our thoughts and feelings into harmony with each other around a positive focus, change in our world will come about. The peace we all seek is possible. This is supported by research repeatedly performed using EEG and ECG equipment that register electrical energy in the brain and heart. The tests showed that when a person regularly practiced bringing their own heart/brain energy fields into coherence and directed that energy toward another person, he/she would come into a synchronous pattern as well. This is also the concept behind many types healing accomplished through prayer and meditation.

Everyone wants harmony, peace, balance and goodness in life. We are all looking for the same thing in this respect. The ego mind tries to make this a difficult process. The ego wants to be in charge. When we let it control our thoughts and feelings, we experience a chaotic world and feel helpless to do anything about it. The truth is, it is our inherent right to have peace, balance and harmony.

Who are you when you don’t get what you want?

During the Saturday morning lesson this question arose. I have heard the question before, but as it was considered this time I thought about it in a different way. When I forget who I am, I may feel I am not getting what I want. This is usually a sign that the ego is trying to control things. Actually, it is a myth that ego has this power. As we harmonize with our true nature we let go of the need to control things. We are then able to experience what is without the judgment of “right” or “wrong.” Every experience becomes a door. Passing through that door we will see what is showing up to teach us whatever we need to know to get on about life.

Who is showing up to teach me? What buttons are being pushed? How will I respond?

As you proceed along your spiritual path, seek to be a worthy vessel ready to be filled with learning. Free yourself from this and that. There are many mazes that have been constructed by our old habitual thinking focused on limitation. But within every form of confusion there is something sane. What appears to be insane turns out to be enlightenment as we let go of the old way of thinking. It is here that one clarifies the difference between knowing and knowing about. Knowing is your direct experience in transforming the mazes along your path. Simply observing others may only result in knowing about how overcoming was achieved without the benefit of personal transformation

Djwhal Khul advised us not to let the mind go where we do not want it to go. We have a choice. We may begin by asking, “Why is this happening to me?” It may be that we are simply “in the way” of something passing through, but which is not ours. If we mistakenly think it is ours, we will have to find a way to deal with it. Taking on such problems actually dissipates our energy.

Some believe the mystic path is one of withdrawal from the world. We tend to fantasize about the spiritual life of the ascetic. Certainly there is value in taking time apart on occasion. However, where is the balance between withdrawal to the mystical and the expanding embrace of the mind? In the final analysis, it is how we live in the world that matters. In fact, it is also how well we understand and express our oneness with others and all life. That we are separate is an illusion that we must overcome. We are spiritual partners with others on the path and as we learn that, those others will clearly be recognized. This is a beginning of a balancing of our lives. That process continues through all aspects of our experience—our feminine/masculine nature, our emotional/rational mind, love/wisdom, ebb and flow, resistance and resilience—all of these find their perfect harmony. It is the true resolution of karma.

One of the things we discover as our understanding develops is that things are not as they seem. Everything is an illusion, unreal in any sense of permanence. The unreality exists because we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. We actually seldom meet the other people in our life. What occurs is that we are relating to our notion of the person. When we are looking for a certain type of experience, what we have in our mind’s eye is so persuasive that we often do not see what is right in front of us. So it becomes important to ease up in our relentless search for Truth. The Truth is in and through all things. We have simply let our version of truth limit our ability to recognize it in any form other than our preconceived notion of it.

Through this powerful weekend we had numerous opportunities to examine how we may be blocking the true freedom and harmony that naturally seeks to express in every aspect of our lives. Each person most assuredly touched on some significant aspect of his/her life that they could now address more positively. We experienced specific exercises in one-to-one exchanges where we shared some of the issues of which we were becoming aware. The cathartic release of emotion that had held those issues deep within broke down the walls of ego protection and allowed a new freedom to emerge. An immediate rebalancing began to take place in which we could see ourselves through eyes of wholeness and harmony.

The weekend was concluded with an “initiation” into that newly discovered sense of harmony and balance. As each participant began a walk through the grounds of our location they were greeted by a “gatekeeper” with the blessing: Welcome, noble aspirant. May you walk in balance all the days of your life. Other greeters along the path offered other blessings. Finally, each of us met personally with Master for an individual blessing marking the conclusion of our experience.

After breaking bread together we began our homeward journeys, enriched, fulfilled and with a new sense of harmony and balance and peace.

Eighth Annual Peace Convocation

I am just home after four days attending the Peace Convocation devoted to bringing a greater sense of balance in our lives. The Convocation is in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 event that shook the consciousness of our nation—the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and the crash of the commandeered plane over Pennsylvania.

Conducted by the Vajra Flame Foundation and led by Master Djwhal Khul, through Kathlyn Kingdon, the program offered participants a deepening of our connection with the true spiritual essence of our lives. We were able to examine the attributes of consciousness that provide a balance in our lives in the many areas that we so easily seem to get out of balance. Not only were the presentations by Master DK powerfully shared with each of us, but also the final celebration of peace and balance were extraordinary in reaching the depth of our personal being.

I will be writing more about this very special meeting of individuals with Master DK and the celebration of peace we shared. Come back to LifeCentering soon for more about the Convocation.

Living Into 2009

My “email” friend, SpiritWarriorSky, has shared with his readers a thought that struck me as profoundly simple and at the same time absolutely to the point of working for peace within our smallest groups, our families, and in the world as a whole. I’d like to share it with you.

There are no easy answers for what lies ahead in 2009. We simply need to live into the questions as best we can. If we each do the right thing as often as possible even our enemies will recognize that love and forgiveness are answers because, in the end, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind (Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi). Let us each find grace amidst the squall so all can live in comfort with love . . . . Sky

Happy Thanksgiving